chapter fourteen: no signal

I stared at the computer screens. There were three of them, all set up right next to each other on a hospital bed. We had confiscated this room in order to do some recon. Our goal was to find the Benefactor. We couldn't send in visual confirmation, but the guy still had to know if the creature on the top of the deadpool was dead. And that creature was Scott.

First things first, I hated this plan. I knew that this was a sort of logical idea and that we could probably definitely maybe pull it off, but I hated it. Scott was one of my very best friends, I had grown up with him, and it was emotionally exhausting seeing him pale and lifeless.

Kira's mom and Mrs. McCall would be out in the parking lot, looking for the Benefactor going through the front door. They would making guesses at best, but with Mrs. McCall's knowledge on the hospital's regulars, I could guarantee that they could provide useful information.

Chris Argent, well, I had no idea where he was. He had set up the surveillance on the rooftop, but I didn't know his current location. Dr. Geyer was attempting to bring Scott back to life, though only Kira could do that.

Speaking of Kira, she, myself, Liam, and Stiles hovered over the laptops, watching people mill about and disappear out of one hallway and reappear in another. I already knew that it was going to be difficult to find the Benefactor, but whether or not we did spot him, we would need to bring Scott to the land of the living in forty-five minutes.

One of the screens fuzzed and Liam elbowed me gently in the ribs. "Is that supposed to look like that?" he asked, attracting Stiles and Kira.

"No. No, it's not," my brother said, his brows furrowing.

"Where is that?"

Stiles sighed. "The roof. Someone's gonna have to check it out." I eyed the No Signal message on the blanked out box. I didn't have a good feeling about this. Then again, when did any of our plans induce good feelings?

"I'll go," Kira said placidly. She started to move around the cot, but Stiles reached out an arm to stop her.

"Whoa, whoa. This might not just be a malfunction," he explained, and I inwardly sighed. Of course it might not be a malfunction. When were we ever that lucky?

Kira smiled. "That's why I'm bringing this." She displayed her katana, then shoving it back in its case.

I grinned. "I'll come, too," I said, and both Liam's and Stiles's hand shot out to grab me. I glared at them, and they scowled at each other before releasing me.

"You're not going, Zoe - " Stiles tried at the same time Liam went, "Zoe, don't you think it would be safer if - "

My brows rose. "I can take care of myself, you know. I may just be a human, but that doesn't mean that I haven't picked up a few things." I leveled my gaze at Stiles, who looked like he was ready to protest and didn't. I smiled. "So it's settled."

Liam's hand slipped into mine and he gave me a tight-lipped smile. He wasn't happy that I was putting myself in danger, but he would have to realize that no matter where I was or what I was doing, as long as I did it with Scott and the Scooby-Doo gang, I would always be in peril.

"Okay," Stiles sighed. I could tell he was agitated. Definitely agitated. And not just because his best friend was practically dead in the morgue, but also because his sister - namely me - was going on a possible suicide mission. It was almost enough to make me decide to wait it out with Stiles. But then I remembered all the times I had been left alone while everyone else was off doing something cool and dangerous. "But take this." He handed me the steel bat he always carried around. I gripped the handle tightly, knowing what it meant for my brother to relinquish it to me. He was definitely worried. "And the three of you are coming right back. Immediately."

We dashed out of the room, slowing our pace as we got further into the hallway, not exactly eager to draw attention to ourselves. Silently, we found the staircase to the roof, and doggedly ran up the steps.

Kira burst through the door first, and Liam and I followed. His hand squeezed mine as one of the electrical boxes exploded with white light. I swore, shielding my eyes, and the other two did the same. It died down suspiciously quickly, and I scanned the area. This was the exact roof that we had found Stiles's bat on. The one I was currently clutching in my free hand.

"Looks like someone did something to it," Liam said quietly. I nodded. This was all too familiar to when Stiles was possessed. But he didn't did anything to the electricity. He was still watching the surveillance footage.

There was an unmistakable growling, guttural, of course, and my eyes widened. Before I even turned around, before Kira whipped out her katana, I knew what it was. My knuckles turned white with my grip on the bat. Liam and I whirled around to see a hulking Berserker making its way toward us.

"I think somebody did..." Kira agreed.

Liam snarled. I quickly let go of his hand, seconds before his nails grew into claws and his eyes transitioned to a brilliant gold. His werewolf fangs were bared, and he charged the Berserker.

One, two slashes. The Berserker caught the third, shoving its clawed hand into Liam's chest and hurling him into the fencing of one of the electrical boxes. Liam's back hit it with a clang and he smacked into the ground hard. It took me four seconds flat to get to his side. He wasn't moving, but he wasn't unconscious. He just had to heal.

"Liam," I whispered, my eyes flicking up to see Kira expertly wielding her katana. She wasn't doing much damage. "Liam," I said again, taking one of his hands and placing it over my heart. "Focus, focus, and you'll heal. Find your stability, and heal."

His breathing slowed, and I looked up just in time to see the Berserker throw a punch at our neighborhood kitsune. "Kira!" I jumped to my feet, releasing Liam's hand, and swinging my bat at the giant freaking mass of armor. I was pissed. This thing had killed Garrett, therefore impeding our search for Liam. This thing had fought us off, not letting us past to unknowingly prevent the Hale vault being emptied. This thing was one of the reasons why the deadpool was being enacted.

All these reasons could explain why I was hitting this thing repeatedly with my baseball bat. It did no damage whatsoever, just seemed to further irritate the creature. I had a few seconds to realize what a huge mistake I had just made. Once again, I was human. A mere human, and if werewolves and kitsunes got beat up by Berserkers, what good could I do? My human anger had gotten ahead of me, and had put me in the precarious position of standing right in front of a monstrous Berserker that appeared ready to rip me in two. Another thought that came to mind was that I did not have super healing.

This thinking took place in approximately three seconds, so it really wasn't enough time to have both Kira and Liam come to. My mouth hung open, and my movement stilled as the Berserker raised its arm. Its great, hulking arm, might I add.

I would like to pride myself in that I did not scream. Well, not until the Berserker snapped my left arm in half. I felt my bones break. Clean in two, mind you. I stumbled backward, staring at my deformed limb and not noticing the Berserker advance like it wanted to continue its destruction on me. Thankfully, this was the moment that Liam sprang to life, roaring and eyes glowing.

He didn't spare a glance my way. I was glad, because I knew if he did, he would become concerned and try to help me instead of getting rid of the Berserker. Kira stood as well, but she saw me sliding to the ground and cradling my poor broken arm.

I heard screaming, this time not from me. I couldn't feel anything anymore, but I couldn't tear my eyes from the way my arm sagged. I had only broken a bone once before. Stiles and I, like the little idiots we were, were climbing the vines on the front of the McCall house. We were going to Scott's window to surprise him, but that ended with me falling off, fracturing my right arm, and a trip to the emergency room.

Where had Stiles's bat gone? I dropped it, I knew that. Stiles would be pissed I lost his weapon. I groaned, my head throbbing. Stiles could get another baseball bat, for all I cared.

"Liam!" Kira shrieked. "Get Zoe and get out of here!" My phone was buzzing. Who was calling me? My cell was in my left pocket, though, and I couldn't reach it. "Liam!"

I dragged my eyes up, watching Liam jump on top of one of the electrical boxes that had shorted out. He roared, and I was able to muster enough energy to yell his name before he pounced on the Berserker.

My legs were jelly. I couldn't stand. Or maybe I could, and my mind had just tricked me. In any case, I didn't move when the Berserker just vanished. I hadn't seen it leave. Where did it go? None of us concerned ourselves with this issue for very long. Kira barreled through the door. She had to bring Scott to life. Liam, however, rushed to me, his Tiffany Blue eyes back and his claws retracted.

"Zoe, you idiot," he whispered, and I smiled. Liam's hand cupped my cheek, and he pressed a quick kiss to my lips. Before I could sink into the warmth, he pulled away and gave me a stern look. "Your arm's broken," he said.

I nodded. "I need to go to a hospital," I confirmed. Liam helped me stand, and I swayed on the spot once before he scooped me into his arms. My head lolled and rested against his chest. I could feel his heartbeat, his even breathing, his overall warmth, the flush of his body.

"Good thing we're already at one," Liam said, and he careful went down the metal staircase that we had climbed up to the roof. The pair of us were on our way to find a doctor that could fix me up when we ran into Noshiko Yukimura, Kira's mom, lying on the tile in a pool of blood with Mrs. McCall right beside her. Dr. Geyer was there as well, wheeling a gurney for Mrs. Yukimura.

Before they could ask questions, Liam raced off to the morgue, where we knew we would find the rest of the pack. They were hovering over a still pale Scott, but had now regained consciousness. I smiled. Kira had made it just in time. Thank God.

At our sudden appearance, all eyes flicked to us. I couldn't even gauge everyone's reaction before Stiles started in on me.

"What happened?!"

And with that, everyone else followed.

"Is your arm broken, Zoe?!"

"It was the Berserker on the roof!"

"We need to get her to a doctor."

Liam cleared his throat, and thankfully, everyone quieted. I took this opportunity for myself, as I was unable to do much else other than dangle from Liam's arms. "We came to tell you," I began, swallowing the lump in my throat. I thought about how much blood Mrs. Yukimura had lost. She must have had a run-in with one of the other Berserkers. Another reason to hate them.

"What?" Kira asked.

"Your mother," Liam said, seeing as I couldn't finish. "She's hurt."

I woke up in a white hospital room. Liam was asleep in the chair next to my bed. His gray jacket was zipper to the neck and his hands were shoved in the pockets. He looked dead uncomfortable. I smiled, moving over in his direction when my arm panged. There was an I.V. in my right arm, and a cast on my left. I stifled a groan. For fuck's sake...

"Zoe?" I looked up at the door. Dr. Geyer was standing there with a clipboard in his hand. He noticed Liam, and smiled. "It's good that you're awake. How are you feeling?"

Dr. Geyer didn't know about us. He didn't know about werewolves, or kitsunes, or banshees. He didn't know about the deadpool. He didn't know that there were Berserkers roaming the hospital, and that I had been useless in preventing its attack on me. He didn't know, so I settled for something easy. "My arm hurts."

He nodded. "I bet. Sorry about that. Liam couldn't tell me what happened to you. Just said to fix you, and fast. I'll admit that I had to get another nurse to put your arm back in place while I tended to Mrs. Yukimura."

"How is she?" I hadn't seen anyone other than Liam since we told the gang that Kira's mom was hurt. I didn't even know where my brother was.

"She's being taken to another hospital in Palo Alto. They can help her more than we can," he said, and then paused. I wondered briefly if Liam was really sleeping. Werewolf hearing made you more sensitive to sounds, right? Shouldn't he have woken up by now? Unless he was faking... "You're friends with Scott McCall, aren't you? You and Liam?"

I nodded. "Yes, sir. Is something wrong?" Was I supposed to know that Scott was dead? Was I supposed to know that Scott wasn't dead? Dr. Geyer had been the one to try to bring him back to life, he had been the one to call the time of death.

"Well, he was..." Pause. "He was...deceased. But I just saw him not too long ago with Mrs. Yukimura's daughter..."

I pretended to be astounded. "He's alive?" I was only slightly proud to say that my voice sounded completely incredulous. I hated lying. It had been less recreational, and more necessary. And I hated it.

Dr. Geyer nodded. "Indeed. It's a miracle. He went home for the night, but he's returning tomorrow for tests."

I smirked. "Since he was officially dead and all."

The man nodded again, though he didn't smile. It must be disconcerting, someone totally dead just coming back to life. Welcome to my world, where evil aunts and awful uncles return from the dead regularly. Why didn't any good people come back? Where was Allison? And Aiden? And Boyd, and Erica?

"Well, I'd like you to stay the night, Zoe," Dr. Geyer said, "but you're welcome to go home tomorrow. Your father should be here shortly."

"Oh, you called him?" Of course. Dr. Geyer nodded, and went to leave the room, before I halted him. "You haven't seen my brother, have you? Stiles?"

"Yes. He waited in here for a while, but you never gained consciousness. I believe Liam and him exchanged words before he left." I nodded slowly, and this time, let Dr. Geyer leave.

I slumped back into my pillow. "He told me that if I left your side, he'd kill me," Liam said, and I jumped, making the I.V. move painfully. Liam winced. "Sorry."

"Thanks for staying with me," I said quietly, and Liam smiled.

"Always," he confirmed.

I was going to say something else to him, something just as gushy, I'm sure, but my phone buzzed. It was sitting on the nightstand face down, and I remembered that someone had been calling me during the fight with the Berserkers. Liam watched me as I picked it up with my good hand, ignoring the pinching of the I.V.

Dad had been the one to call me. He didn't leave a voice mail, though, so I assumed it was nothing too important. The text, however, was from Scott. I couldn't help the static ball of anxiety that grew in my stomach as I opened the message.

"I have to tell you something."

Dun, dun, dun! Okay, so, I'm awful. I'm struggling, and in all seriousness, I almost totally forgot about this fanfiction. School is chaos, I'm asleep on my feet, and I just watched Dead Poets Society and I want to do something! Carpe Diem! Seize the day! I don't know. Sorry about the lack of updates, I'll try to do better. Did you know that I haven't even seen the season finale yet? I don't know what's wrong with me. By the way, thank you for reviewing, and natalye, you finally got me to post. Thanks a ton. Keep reviewing, you all, and happy belated birthday to Anony. J.!

9.17.2014