Chapter 14 –

Scott POV –

Despite having spent time searching for the Dread Doctors and hiding from the Wild Hunt in them, Scott found that he still had no sense of direction when it came to the vast network of tunnels under Beacon Hills. With Chris' death, the only people who have intimate knowledge of the tunnels were Gerard, Kate, and Theo.

Additionally, the former operating theater of the Dread Doctors was the only place that most of the pack had no idea how to find it. Scott, Liam, and Malia had all been there before, but Theo revealed that the Dread Doctor's had machines designed to make the tunnels around the operating theater more confusing so that only the Doctors themselves and their creations could navigate them without difficulty. That on top of Theo's apparent knowledge of secret entrances that were unknown, even to Gerard, resulted in Theo leading the group of Scott, Stiles, Lydia, Malia, and Derek through an unfamiliar stretch of tunnel.

After nearly an hour of searching, Theo had them stop in one of the many corridors in the tunnels, holding his hand to tell everyone to hang back while he looked at the left-hand wall. Scott too began taking in their surroundings but concluded that this was a section that they had already been through previously.

"We've already been through here. We should keep moving before we're spotted."

He took one step forward before Theo stopped him with an arm across his chest. He glared at the Chimera and was about to ask him what he was doing, but Theo waved him off.

"What are you doing?"

"Look there," was all Theo said, pointing at a section of pipe around 15 yards ahead of them. At first all he could see were the dozen or so pipes that lined the wall and continued around the corner into the nest corridor. He was starting to get frustrated when he finally noticed something on the wall. He realized that it was one of the ouroboros symbol that had marked the entrance that he and Liam had found. It was right there, but his eyes had unconsciousness passed over it while they were searching for it.

"How did…?"

"It's the Dread Doctor's machines. Gerard must've found a way to reactivate them, so we couldn't find him."

Theo reached for the ouroboros, turned it upside down, and with a strong push the wall moved inwards before sliding to the side, revealing another set of tunnels.

"These passages lead to the holding chambers where they would keep their experiments." He motioned towards the path on the right, which seemed to go deeper into the underground network. "While that direction," he said indicating the other way, "leads to where they would incubate their successful experiments in the woods. It also leads to their lair in the Preserve, which is how they moved their equipment there before anyone could find them."

It made sense to Scott, since the Dread Doctors obviously went to great lengths to keep their experiments a secret, it wasn't hard to believe that they would somehow construct tunnels to hide their movements. Still though, something about Theo's explanation bothered him a little bit.

"How do you know it leads out to the preserve?"

"Because it's how I got back here after Mason turned into the Beast."

It was a reasonable enough answer, but something felt off about this whole scenario. Gerard knew that they had Theo with them, so why would he pick one of the few places that Theo had extensive knowledge of. He wanted to question it, but if Gerard really was down here, they needed to move quickly before he slipped through their fingers again.

"Alright guys let's go," said the Alpha as he started to move forward, the others falling in line behind him. If it wasn't for the fact that they had found this path behind a secret door, he would assume that they were just in another section of the tunnels. The pipes lining the wall were nearly identical to the rest of the labyrinth, the only indication that this area was any different was the stillness of the air and the layer of dust that had collected on every surface.

"How do we get inside without Gerard seeing us?" asked Stiles, who even though he was grateful when he heard that Theo had saved Lydia a few weeks back, still found it difficult to trust the Chimera after everything that happened.

"There's a door on the other side of the holding area that connects to the main bunker. It's hidden in the wall so that the test subjects would have no sense of where they were. They tried to hide it from me too, but I saw them use it a few times. That's how I was able to save Liam and Hayden when they were taken." Scott nodded his head in understanding before continuing to move in the direction that Theo indicated was to the lair.

The group continued to move forward for several minutes, Scott's unease growing with each passing second.

"Wait." Scott stopped ahead of the group, turning his ear towards the path in front of them.

"What is it?" said Stiles as he stepped up beside his best friend.

"Nothing. I don't hear anything."

"We should've heard them by now, right?" Came Malia's voice from behind them.

Scott and Stile turned around to see the other werewolves all focusing on trying hear if there were any signs of life up ahead, but judging by the concentrated yet frustrated looks on their faces, they weren't coming up with anything either.

"Maybe it's sound proof," said Lydia, "If the Dread Doctors went to these lengths to keep their lair from being found, maybe they thought of that."

Scott looked back down the corridor, debating whether to continue or find another way to find Gerard. Deciding that it was better to check and find nothing than to be tricked into giving up, he cautiously took another step forward.

"Hold on." Derek was now up next to Scott, his eyes closed as he stepped closer to the righthand wall. "Do you hear that?"

Scott stepped closer as well, closing his eyes and putting his ear next to the wall. At first, he heard nothing except the faint hissing sound that piping in the tunnels always had. He nearly gave up when he caught the lightest ticking noise coming from the wall, almost imperceptible due to the air moving through the pipes.

Before he could question it, multiple pipes along either wall suddenly burst, filling the tunnel with gas and vapor. One breath and the burning sensation that followed was all it took for Scott to realize what it was. "Wolf's bane! Run!"

The group quickly ran back the way that they came, covering their mouths with either their shirts or their hands as they tried to find a way out, the entrance now obscured by the thick wolf's bane fog.

Theo was the first to make it there, quickly grabbing onto the edge of the sliding door to try and pull it open. He struggled for a moment before the door opened, but by the look of surprise of Theo's face and the speed at which it flew open, it was apparent that he hadn't opened it.

With a speed that nearly caught him off-guard, Theo ducked under the powerful strike of the Berserker who was on the other side of the door, before being pinned to the wall by a transformed Kate. The rest of the pack stopped, in surprise, momentarily stunned that the sudden arrival of their attackers, before they shook off their bewildered state and rushed forward to help Theo fend of the surprise attack.

Malia and Derek quickly went to the doorway and found two Berserkers waiting for them there, which they tried to fight off as best they could. Meanwhile, Scott rushed at Kate, knocking her away from Theo, swiping at her with his right hands, but she deftly ducked out of the way.

The fight went on for a few minutes, and while Derek, Scott, Malia, and Theo were able to keep Kate and the Berserkers back, they were worse for wear, having needed to take a few shots to keep their focus away from Lydia and Stiles. When Derek and Malia had gotten the two Berserkers out of the tunnel with great difficulty, Lydia moved along the wall until she was in front of the entrance, and with a push of her hands and a powerful scream, knocked the Berserkers into the adjacent wall, momentarily stunning the great beasts.

While this was going on, Scott and Theo were still battling Kate and neither side was able to gain any real advantage. Vaguely, Scott noticed that a particularly strong scent of anger and rage was coming from Kate and that most of her attacks were directed at Theo.

After ducking one of her swings, Theo wrapped his arms around her waist, and tackled her out into the other corridor and into the advancing Berserkers. Scott was going to follow him out and help until the Chimera yelled, "Go! Out to the Preserve! I'll hold them off!" He then kicked at the wall next to the doorway, hitting the Ouroboros symbol shutting the door behind him, leaving the rest of the pack in the tunnel as the gas began to fill it up once again.

"We need to keep moving," came the tired voice of Derek from behind him. The fight as well as the Wolf's Bane in the air was starting to affect them, so there was little hesitation as the pack continued to sprint towards the direction of the Preserve exit.

After running for what seemed like a mile, Scott finally saw light at the end of the tunnel, which he hoped signaled that the exit was near. The fatigued fighters pushed forward faster until they came across a room with what appeared to be a cage in the middle. Taking a moment Scott surveyed the room, noticing 2 things very quickly.

1. The whole in the wall that had once led to the basement of an abandoned house had been seemingly patched up, whether by Gerard or somebody else remained to be scene.

2. The tunnel that led to the Preserve seemed to be inside the cage, meaning that they would have to run through there to escape.

"There!" he said as he made to sprint towards the exit, the others following quickly behind him.

No sooner had the pack entered the cage, then the entry to the tunnel began to close in front of them.

"No!" screamed Scott and he, Malia, and Derek were at the door a second later, each using their strength to try and keep it from closing, but to no avail. Eventually, the three of them had to let go or risk crushing their hands. Distracted as they were by their one chance at escaping slipping through their fingers, they didn't notice the sound of footsteps approaching until the sound of metal moving caught their attention.

Whipping around, they caught the last moments as the siding doors to the cage were slammed shut by a pair of hunters. Scott rushed to the door, hoping to pry it open, but the second his hands touched the metal, he felt a shock of electricity go through him, knocking him back several feet. Malia and Derek too approached the side of the cage but were also met by electric shocks.

"We're trapped," exclaimed a weak sounding Lydia, the gas affecting her and Stiles even though they weren't werewolves. Their fight to escape, coupled with the increased volume of Wolf's Bane gas in the tunnels, started to catch up to Scott, his vision going blurry and his muscles beginning to give out. He fought back the fuzziness to his brain as his body collapsed to the ground, the last image he saw before falling into unconsciousness was the unmistakable silhouette of Gerard approaching with a gas mask, until the darkness finally took over.

AN:

Hey, I posted an update. What are the odds. I know I repeatedly promise that I'm going to get better about updating and I meant it the last time, but last-minute complications with school have kept me busy.

On top of that this chapter was a lot harder to write than I had anticipated. This chapter is a bit shorter than I write, but I figured that I've been slacking on posting so I delayed the reveal that was supposed to be at the end of this chapter until next time. I'm almost done part one of "Namesake" and once I do that I can focus 100% on this story and "Knowledge and Power".

Hope you all enjoy, and thanks for reading!