This chapter is trippy, stick with me.

CHAPTER TWENTY

UNLOCKED

Allison quickly knocked another arrow into her bow, trying to aim for the Oni about to strike Isaac with the deadly blow. Jessie blurred over to the Oni, grabbing his arm, but only able to hold his hand steady, "Allison, now!"

Allison let the arrow fly, hitting the Oni square in the chest. The wound glowed and bright yellow green color as the Oni dropped its weapon in shock. He grasped at the arrow, but it was too late. The Oni shattered into a million pieces, and the ground around them shook like an earthquake.

Allison had never felt prouder to help her protect her friends, when a sudden realization hit her. One so important, it may mean the end of this whole fight. But before the moment could pass, she felt the sharp pain of a sword slicing its way through her body.

Allison hadn't even fallen to the ground yet when Scott got there, "Allison!" running forward and catching her in his arms. Everyone was helpless to watch. Ed tried to attack one of the Oni holding Jessie, but they quickly sliced the sword just a bit into the skin of her neck.

"No, mate, they can decapitate her, and she can't heal from that," Connor warned.

Scott reached for Allison's hand, trying to use his powers to take away her pain, but nothing happened. "I can't... I can't take your pain."

"It's because it doesn't hurt," she whispered, peering up at him.

Scott cried, "No."

"It's okay. It's okay," she cooed up at him, choking up. "It's perfect. I'm in the arms of my first love. The first person I ever loved. The person I'll always love. I love you." She reached up to his face with one of her hands, "Scott. Scott McCall." She gasped out, "You have to tell my dad... you have to... you have to tell him. Tell him..." but before she could finish her message, her face went blank and slack and her eyes unfocused.

Jessie rushed over to Scott and Allison, roughly biting into her wrist until it was dripping blood. She pinched Allison's cheeks together and pressed her open wrist over her mouth, letting the blood drip onto her tongue. "Allison, you have to drink it. Come on. Come on!"

Scott looked up at her hopelessly, "Why won't it work?"

Jessie pulled her now-healed wrist to her chest, falling back onto her knees, resting her but on her heels. "It doesn't work if they're already dead."

Chris Argent ran into the camp, guns blazing, but halted abruptly when he saw his daughter laying limp in her ex-boyfriend's arms. He felt a cold shock go through him, not wanting to believe any of this was happening.

Jessie stared at Allison's unmoving face and body for a moment, before she blurred away. One moment she was there, the next – gone.

"Where-" Scott started to ask but was cut off when they all heard a shrill scream echoing around them. But it wasn't Lydia. It was Jessie.

Scott was barely aware of being gathered onto the couch with Lydia and Isaac – the chosen witnesses to a horrific crime. The Sheriff and Deputy Parrish were speaking to him, but he was flashing back to Allison's face as she stared up at him with love in her last moments. He flashed back to Chris coaching him on what to tell the police as he held onto some nearby bars for support in his grief.

"Scott, look at me. Look at me," Chris had goaded him. "Scott, look at me."

Scott had still breathing roughly in disbelief as Chris kept instructing him once he finally looked over at the older man.

"You have to remember. You called me first, okay?" he had emphasized nearly every word he said.

Scott was only able to numbly nod.

"Say it," Chris had ordered him in a clear and strict voice. "You called me first."

Scott panted, "I called you..."

"Not you," he had corrected him with such ferocity. "Say Mr. Argent or her dad."

"I called her dad first," Scott had repeated him.

"What else? What happened?"

"There were two of them," Scott had panted. "They tried to steal our car. They wore masks. One of them had a knife."

"You think," Chris had to cut in. "Don't get specific, Scott. You saw something sharp and metallic. You think it was a knife. What do you say next? If you get confused, what do you always repeat?"

Scott had shut his eyes so tightly, bright stars erupted under his eyelids and whispered, "It happened so fast."

"That's right," Chris had finally encouraged him. "Say it again. Scott! Say it again."

Scott had looked over and stared at the man in disbelief, "How are you doing this?"

Chris had to take a long gulp to keep his composure, "It's what we do. It's what we do."

Back at the station, Lydia was getting questioned by Parrish. "Lydia, do you remember anything else?"

Lydia stared numbly at the ground as she muttered, "It happened so fast," and remembered the immediate aftermath.

After she and Georgie had composed themselves in the narrow corridor, they dragged the barely awake Stiles back into the camp courtyard. Lydia had seen Chris and some red-haired man cradling and carrying away her best friend's dead body. The sight had sent her into a fit of screams and cries and wails. Georgie had a hard time keeping hold of her and Stiles, so Kira and her mother had run over to console her while Scott took the limp Stiles from Georgie.

"You all need to go," Connor had rushed over to them, speaking mostly to Kira and her mother. "We need only a few witnesses. We can't explain why so many of us were here."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Lydia had wheezed in disbelief. "Allison is dead! And you're talking about a plan!?"

"Calm down, lass," Connor had calmly placated her. "I'm not trying to diminish the loss of your friend-"

"Best friend," she had snapped, correcting him.

He had looked at her heartbroken anger and sighed, "I've been in this game a long time, Lydia. I've had to learn how to prioritize so that we can keep fighting, so things like this don't happen again."

Back at the station, she could admit to herself that he was right of course. He was right to take charge so that all this part could be over with – the explanation, the story. So, they could move on and keep trying to kill the Nogitsune.

Isaac was the last to be questioned, with the Sheriff sitting in as his temporary guardian while Parrish asked him, "Can you remember anything else, Isaac?"

He just muttered, "It just happened so fast," as he remembered crawling over to Nuala on the cold ground. He had been able to feel himself healing, but he was still in pain, pushing himself up on his hands and knees to her supine body. She hadn't even been crying, or moving much, but the moment his hand had touched her bare arm, his powers kicked in and black veins shot up his arm, taking away some of the unbearable pain she had been in.

Her sister had raced over and turned her over on her stomach to see the deep wound across her upper back, cursing, "Fucking, dammit. You're gonna need a hell of a lot of stitches."

"No hospital," Nuala had muttered through gritted teeth.

"Nuala, you have to go to a doctor," Isaac had protested. "You're still losing blood-"

"No, she's right," Dechtire had told him. "The minute her name shows up in hospital records, we either have to disappear or she goes to prison."

"Prison?" Isaac gasped. "For – for what?"

"Three months ago, a shapeshifter copied her face and went on a serial killing spree," Dechtire answered him blankly. "Now, let's go." She had lifted her sister up to her feet by herself and led her to her car.

As Scott was exiting the station after saying goodbye to the Sheriff, Connor ran up to him, "Mate, I need your help."

"What is it?" Scott asked eagerly. "Is it Jessie? Did you find her?"

"Yes and no," Connor answered reluctantly. "Remember what I told you happened to her after Alex died?"

He nodded, "Is it happening again?"

"Worse," Connnor muttered. "She's deep in the woods, we can't keep up with her. She's already tried to bite three of us."

"Who is 'us'?" Lydia croaked, appearing behind them.

Connor sighed, "Other people like me. Like Gavin. My mum. So on. As soon as Jessie disappeared, I made a call. They went to track her, but... she's smart and unstable and grieving. Scott, we need you to find her and bring her back."

"What can I do that you didn't do before?" he asked. "You fixed her last time she got like this."

Connor shook his head, "No, we put her back into her emotionless state. And it took days, mate. That's the kind of time we don't have, and we don't want her going back to her robotic self, do we? No, we want her back to herself, the real Jessie. Because only that Jessie can help us stop the evil bastard that already killed one of our own."

"So, what can Scott do that you can't?" Lydia asked.

"We know what Alphas can do," he explained. "How they can get into minds, extract memories. We know you used it to split Stiles from the Nogitsune. We need you to find her like only another supernatural can and get into her head, pull the read Jessie out like you did with Stiles."

Scott was conflicted, wanting to tear the Nogitsune limb from limb and also save Jessie.

"Scott?" he heard Lydia's voice behind him. He turned to her, seeing concentration on her face, "You didn't hear this, but right before you guys sacrificed yourselves to the Nemeton to find your parents, Deaton was the one who told Jessie to go with you instead of him. Because you two share a powerful bond."

Deaton gently pulled Jessie off to the side to speak to her quietly, "You should go with Scott."

She seemed shocked, "Are you sure? I mean, you've been like a father to Scott. That seems like a pretty strong emotional tether."

"You may not feel the full power of it yet," he told her, "but you and Scott have a deep connection that will last for the rest of your lives, more powerful than any obstacle either of you will face, and only make you both more powerful than any enemy can handle. I am sure."

Jessie nodded, floored by the seriousness of the new information, "Okay."

"Scott, if anyone can pull Jessie out of this and get the real her back," Lydia spoke with conviction, "it's you. And you need to. We need her with us now. We can't lose her too."

Scott went up to her to hug her, promising, "Okay, I will get her back."

Noshiko finished readying the tea before pouring a cup for Stiles, placing it on the coffee table in front of him. Georgie was huddled next to him, keeping a firm hand wrapped around his arm. Noshiko gently gestured to the cup, "Here, it'll calm you."

"What is it?" he asked, voice weak.

"Tea," she said simply.

"What? Like magic tea?" he asked as he picked up the mug.

"No, chamomile tea," she quipped. "Drink it."

"He's not safe here," Kira's father told them.

"He's not safe anywhere," Georgie pointed out. "We have no special shelter for Japanese trickster spirits that kill our friends."

"But Allison killed one of them," Kira stressed. "Doesn't that mean something? She killed an Oni."

"Is that even possible?" Ken asked his wife.

She looked just as clueless to this phenomenon, "I'm not sure how."

"But she did it," Kira said. "She killed one of them."

"Yeah, and then they killed her," Stiles muttered. "Allison's dead... Now, I guess the only good thing is it looks like I'm dying, too."

"No, don't talk like that," Georgie told her boyfriend. "I don't want to hear you talking like that. You're not going to die."

"Georgie, I gotta be realistic," he told her, looking at her with a mixture of emotions. "I feel like I am."

"He made a powerful move by splitting the two of you," Noshiko spoke.

"What now?" Georgie asked, still looking right into Stiles' eyes.

"At this point, you need a divine move," Ken said.

"What's that?" Kira asked.

"In the game of Go," Noshiko explained, "it's what we call a truly inspired, or out-of-the-box move. The Nogitsune has had sente, the advantage, until this point. What you need is a divine move in order to turn the game around."

"Okay, so is anyone feeling divinely inspired?" Stiles quipped.

"Mom, you said you trapped it in a glass jar, right?" Kira confirmed with her mother.

"It wasn't the jar that trapped it," Noshiko told her. "It was where I buried it."

"The Nemeton," Stiles realized.

"A place I don't know too much about," Noshiko admitted.

"My sister knows everything about it," Georgie muttered. "She was its guardian – is. But she's not here to help us with that."

"What? Why not?" Stiles asked, looking back at her.

She sighed, "Okay, well, when I got home after what happened at Eichen House, the place was trashed, and my sister was gone. The Witches Council took her."

"What?" Stiles exclaimed. "How did this happen? How do we get her back?"

"I don't know," she answered helplessly. "Deaton is making a plan, but I had to save you first."

"Deaton may be the person we need for this too," he said.

Scott took a quick break by a tree, panting as he'd been racing through the woods for a half hour. Lydia had come with him, determined to help rescue at least one of her best friends, and keep her mind off of Allison. Connor and Gavin were right behind them with flashlights and staffs. They wanted to be able to hold off an unstable and possibly homicidal Jessie if they needed to, without hurting her.

"Did you lose her?" Lydia asked, coming up behind him.

His ears perked when he heard sobbing, and knew it was her. "She's this way," he said before taking off after the sounds until he came upon a small clearing in the trees.

She was there, in the center of the clearing, cradling her arms around her knees and laying on her side, sobbing into the dirt. Scott gestured for the others to stay back, taking slow steps to approached her, "Jessie?"

She started, getting up on her knees and whisper-shouting at him through fangs he'd never seen on her before, "Get out of here. Scott, I don't want to hurt you. But I will."

"No, you won't," he told her, kneeling in front of her.

She growled at him, lurching forward and trying to clamp her fangs into his shoulder but he was stronger than her in this state. He held her back onto the ground as she writhed and growled and tried to attack him. He looked back at the others with him, "Help keep her still, so I can do it!"

Connor and Gavin readily stepped forward with their staffs and helped Scott turn her, so she was sitting up with her back to him. Connor was able to hold Jessie's neck still, shouting as she screamed and fought, "Now, Scott, do it now!"

Scott took a deep breath and let his Alpha power spark through him, his eyes glowing red, and pushed his claws into the skin of her neck. He jolted with a gasp as he felt the now familiar sensation of being pulled into someone else's subconscious.

When he opened his eyes, it was light out and he was outside, in a neighborhood of Beacon Hills. Or at least, it looked like any other neighborhood in Beacon Hills. He looked around, it looked peaceful. Birds were chirping. People were out mowing their lawns. Kids were playing, riding their bikes in the street. It looked like a verified utopia. Somehow, Scott was compelled to turn around, facing a big two-story house, painted a soft beige color, with parts built up out of old red bricks. Green ivy was crawling up the sides of it, curling around the front railings and posts of the large wraparound porch.

The red painted door opened up and he saw a young woman, with long dark brown hair flowing around her elbows. She smiled softly at him and gestured for him to come into the house. He slowly opened the white picket fence lining along the sidewalk, walking down the long cobblestone walkway in the large grass front yard.

"Who are you?" he asked, feeling like he should know who this girl was. She looked his age.

"I'm Tanya, Jessica's birth mother," the girl smiled brightly as a boy came around to wrap an arm around her waist. She put her hand on his chest, "And this is Wesley, her father."

"We're very grateful for what you've done to protect our daughter," Wesley shook his hand.

"I'm confused," Scott admitted sheepishly. "It wasn't like this in Stiles' head."

"Because his mind was warped by the Nogitsune," Wesley explained. "It's a little more straight forward here."

"This is the kind of house Jessie dreams of living in one day," Tanya said. "With a family of her own. Safe. A peaceful life. That's why we're in this room." She led him into the dining room, where he saw Jessie's adoptive family – Paula, Hunter, Beth, Baako – sitting around the table, eating and laughing together. Hunter didn't look hurt anymore. Baako was alive. They were all safe and happy.

"So, what room will I find the real Jessie in?" he asked.

"We don't know," Wesley answered him. "Just start knocking on doors. Find her."

Scott nodded heavily and walked up the stairs. When he finally got to the top, it looked like his work was cut out for him. The hallway was long, with many doors lining each side of it. He started with the first one he saw, it was good a place as any to start. He didn't know if he should knock or something, he didn't know the rules. Eventually, he chose to simply open the door.

When he walked passed the threshold, he wasn't in any kind of room. He was at the Beacon Hills cemetery, right in front of Tanya and Wesley's mausoleum. He looked around for a bit, "Hello?"

"Hey, Scott."

Scott was startled at the sound of Isaac's voice, spinning around to see him leaning against the side of the mausoleum. "Isaac? What are you doing here?"

"This is my space in Jessie's subconscious," Isaac held out his hands as if to say 'ta-da.' "This is where we met. So, this is where all memories with me are. What are you looking for?"

"Jessie," Scott said. "Do you know where she is?"

Isaac shrugged, "I'm just a manifestation of her feelings for me. Past feelings, in my case."

"In your case?" Scott asked.

Isaac gave him a look, tilting his head, as if he were in on a secret, "Come on, this is Jessie's head. I know what she knows, at least when it comes to me. And I know she no longer loves me. She loves somebody else. Or she will, once she finally lets the real her out."

Scott looked around, "We don't have time for this. How do I get back to the hallway? I need to find her."

Isaac pushed himself off the wall and reached over to the mausoleum doors, yanking one of them open. He gestured for Scott to walk through, "Right this way."

Scott hesitantly did as told, walking through the mausoleum door and ending up back in the long hallway. He inwardly cursed to himself, knowing that it would take a long time to check all the doors. But it was important, nearly imperative, to get Jessie back.

He pushed himself through the next door, nearly tripping into another set of woods, only this time in the day time. "Who's here!?"

"Hello, Scott," a Scottish voice greeted him. He turned around to see Alex grinning, strapped up with hunting weapons and pack on his back. Alex waved at him with a happy grin, "Welcome to the wonders of Portland, mate. Beautiful, isn't it?"

Scott looked around at the trees, squinting in the light, "Is this where you died?"

Alex tapped his nose and pointed to him, "Bingo, Scotty. It was pretty gruesome. Scarred Jessie for life. But I'd do it all again, as long as she was safe. Now, it's your turn to keep her safe."

"That's what I'm trying to do," Scott pointed out. "I have to find her."

"Right you do," Alex agreed. "So, go on."

Scott looked around, seeing no doorway to walk through. "How? How do I get back?"

Alex rolled his eyes and said, "Just think, mate. You're in a brain, use yours."

Scott took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was back in that damned hallway. There were at least a dozen doors around him, just the ones he could see. He couldn't possibly search every single one. He needed to find the right one.

About five doors down the hall, there was a door larger than most of the others, with about three deadbolts on it. Jessie's subconscious obviously didn't want that door opened. As he approached it, the closer he got, the more the house started to shake around him like an earthquake. He almost lost his footing, but he held himself against the walls and made his way to the door. The doorknob nearly burned under his touch, but he pushed through the pain and used his supernatural strength to push against the door with all the power he had within him.

He fell right onto his face when the door finally gave way, hitting his nose on tiled floor. He looked around, confused to see that he was in the vet's office where he worked. Was he going to bump into Deaton's manifestation in Jessie's subconscious? Or was this where Jessie was hiding since she worked there too? He got up onto his feet and brushed himself off, calling out, "Jessie?"

"No, but good try," a too familiar voice answered him.

Scott's eyes widened considerably in shock when he saw himself walk out to the front room with a small smile on his face. "What the Hell?"

The other Scott laughed, "Don't you know how it works by now? There's a room for everyone, Scott."

"But why am I behind a triple bolted door?" Scott asked incredulously.

The other Scott shrugged casually, "Isn't it obvious? She doesn't want to admit to what's behind this door. To me," he gestured to himself. "She doesn't want to admit her feelings for you, Scott. It's easier to hide from them and save her to pain of getting her heartbroken. Or worse, losing us."

"That would never happen," Scott protested.

"We all know that," the other Scott pointed between the two of them. "Because you love her too."

Scott tried to deny it, but he couldn't, "How...?"

The other Scott laughed, "You melded your subconscious with Jessie's. So, just like I know what she knows, I know what you know, too. You know?"

Scott numbly shook his head as if to clear it, "I'm still a bit confused. But yeah, I think I know. But... Jessie and I... it's impossible. She can't feel the same-"

"I think I'd know if she did or not," the other Scott cut him off. "Just think on it, Scott. Remember all the times between us and her, how special the bond between us is." He stepped forward and lifted his own claws. "Or, I can just show you."

Before Scott protest, the other Scott stuck his claws into the base of his neck and he was being pulled into something very different.

They were still in the vet's office, but it felt very off somehow, overly familiar. The other Scott pulled him off to the side, whispering, "Watch. This is where you and Jessie first met. It's why the vet's office is my room."

Scott was voiceless as the doorbell dinged and Jessie walked in, looking just the same way she did the first day he ever saw her, when she came looking for a job.

"Hello?" she called out.

"Just a minute!" Scott nearly fell over in shock when he saw a younger version of himself, with his longer floppy hair, walking out to meet her. "Can I help you?"

The other Scott, the one taking him through this memory journey, whispered, "You two ended up facing a blood thirsty Alpha together – Peter, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember," Scott hissed back quietly, even if he didn't have to be quiet.

"Then you remember always being the first person to be there for her when she needed someone," the other Scott pointed out.

The scene changed around them to a parking lot outside the ice rink, in the middle of the night. He saw Jessie's car and walked closer. Other Scott pointed at the car, where he could see himself and Jessie sitting in front. "Like when she broke up with Isaac for the first time."

They walked closer to the car, Scott leaning down to peer into the driver's side window. The window was cracked enough that he could hear her sobbing as she tried to put her key in the ignition, but her had was shaking too badly. He watched himself take the keys away from her and put them down in the cup holder. He then wrapped his arms around her and held her while she cried, "I'm so sorry—it'll be okay. It'll be okay."

"Or like when Matt was holding her hostage at gunpoint," Other Scott narrated as the world around them melted into the Sheriff's station.

Matt was ranting about his rhyme and reason, waving his gun in their faces. And Scott saw himself holding Jessie's hand in comfort.

"You're there for her whenever she doubts herself," Other Scott said as they ended up following Jessie as she was sitting outside the vets office in her car, on the phone with him.

He could hear his own voice in the phone, as if he were listening directly, "Jessie, what's wrong?"

She was in tears, "I felt Jackson get shot. I felt him dying. And I knew he'd stay human and die if I didn't do something. So, I told him—somehow—to do whatever it takes to live and heal. And I've got an awful feeling that he'll be turning into something worse because of it."

"Whatever happens, it's not your fault, Jessie," he heard himself tell her. "Okay? I don't want to hear you blaming yourself for whatever might happen to Jackson just because you saved his life. You're a good person."

The next place they ended up in was the lacrosse field, where Scott was about to help Stiles' train for the next season to make first string. Scott and other Scott were standing off by a nearby tree. He saw Jessie sitting on the jeep, upset. And he was there to comfort her.

"Jessie, what's up?" he said, coming to stand next to her seat.

She sighed, "It's just... everything that's happened—I'm not the same anymore."

"None of us are," Stiles was there to, to offer his wisdom.

"Yeah, I guess," Jessie said quietly. "It's just... I'm not sure I like who I am now."

"What are you talking about?" Scott took one of her hands in his.

"Holding a gun on people—Matt, Matthias. Threatening the Argents and all the fighting. When I was holding that gun on Matt, a little part of me thought that if I just pulled the trigger, then it would just be over. That if he wasn't around anymore, it would be okay. And it would be so easy—to just pull the trigger," she paused, swallowing. "And I wanted to."

"That doesn't make you a bad person," Scott told her, squeezing her hand. "The point is that you didn't shoot him. You didn't kill him because you're not a murderer. And anything you've ever done has been done to protect us or your family. You're not a monster."

"What if I am?" she asked, tears lodging in her throat. "What if I find out that I'm half-monster and I let it loose? What if I'm slowly losing control of myself and I start hurting people?"

"Hey, look at me," Scott commanded softly, holding her face with his other hand. "You're not some monster, Jessie. You're one of the bravest most self-sacrificing person I've ever known. And the last person who will become a monster. You hear me?"

A tear fell from her eye as she nodded to him, "Yeah..."

"Good," he smiled, kissing her cheek.

"That doesn't prove anything," the real Scott still tried to deny. "She's my best friend."

Other Scott laughed, "Scott, you can't be this naive. You two share every part of your lives together. You laugh together."

They ended up in the school hallway, seeing himself and Jessie walking off from Jennifer Blake.

"I promise it won't be ephemeral," Scott grinned before taking Jessie's arm to lead her out of the school.

She snickered, "Is that your word of the day?"

"Shut up," he smiled at her.

"You support each other."

Scott blanched when he saw himself covered in gasoline, holding the spark in his hands as his friends surrounded him. He looked so hopeless.

Jessie was approaching him slowly with Stiles, stepping into the puddle of gasoline with him, "We're in this together. From beginning—to end."

Stiles got a hold the top of the flare, yanking it from his hand and flinging it away from them onto a dry piece of pavement. Scott gasped, panting in fright of what he was about to do. Scott could see the relief on all of their – including his – faces. Jessie flung her arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms around her back, holding him to her tightly. Stiles joined in, wrapping his arms around both of them, just happy they were all okay.

"You comfort each other."

In the bus, on their way back to Beacon Hills, Jessie peered at Scott in concern, "If Derek really is... dead—it's not your fault."

Scott sighed, "...maybe..."

"Not maybe," Jessie told him. "Actually. Scott—there isn't anything else we could've done that we didn't. We warned him. They were too close to the edge. It wasn't our fault. It wasn't."

"Thank you, Jessie," Scott whispered, leaning over to kiss her forehead where her scar was.

With barely a cliché flash of bright light, they were in Jessie's room, where Jessie was sitting with him on her bed, narrowing her eyes playfully at him after he gave her a speech about staying strong for things to get better, "You're very optimistic lately. What's the deal?"

He shrugged with his crooked smile, "It doesn't hurt."

She half-smiled at him, "Thanks, Scott."

He leaned forward to kiss her forehead right on the scar she had gotten from Allison's arrow when everything had just begun for them, "You don't have to thank me for being your friend, Jessie. I'll always be your friend."

"You're the first one she told when she discovered she was a vampire. It's your first instinct to protect her."

They were in the school parking lot, the moment before a flock of birds were about to attack him and Jessie. "Get down!" Scott shouted just as some of the birds slammed into the car in front of the two of them and slammed into them. He gathered Jessie into his arms and crouched down on the ground behind the nearest car. They could hear the birds' bodies slam into the metal side of the car and crashed into the windows. Glass shattered above us as Scott covered Jessie's body with his.

"Just as it's her first instinct to protect you."

They were inside the school, with Allison, Derek, Lydia and Stiles just after discussing the matching bruises on Lydia and Allison's wrists. Scott and Jessie were just off from the rest of the group. Jessie looked upset as she looked at him, "I can't forgive her, Scott."

"You forgave Alex and Emily," Scott pointed out exasperatedly.

"They actually apologized," she hissed. "They didn't kidnap and torture my brother, they didn't stab my boyfriend ten times and they didn't break my best friend's heart and then just run away!"

Scott softened, sighing, "You don't have to protect me."

"Yes, I do," she whispered. "I do. You're my best friend, Scott, I love you. And being around her hurts you."

Scott took my shoulders in his hands, "I'm okay, Jessie. I'm gonna be okay," he brought her closer to hug her.

"Deaton paired her with you when you sacrificed yourself to the Nemton, because he trusted your connection with her so much, he would bet your life on it... And when she died, you blamed yourself, even when she never did. She died for you."

To his horror, they went next to the abandoned distillery, just as Scott and Derek were rushing to Jessie as she sat against the back wall, looking dirty and weak and pail. He saw himself kneeling over her and brushed her hair back, "Jessie, wake up!"

She blinked her eyes opened tiredly, "I'm sorry, Scott. I'm so sorry."

"What happened—you weren't that hurt, were you?" he asked frantically, looking for any wounds.

She sluggishly pulled her jacket away from where she held it over her abdomen, revealing a thick piece of wood from the crate sticking out from her chest where it stabbed through her. "If I told you sooner... you wouldn't have beaten her. Would've been distracted."

The next moment, the scene in the school melted away and they were in the vet's office again, in the front room. Scott looked around, "What memory is this?"

Other Scott gave him a solemn look, "I think you know."

Scott slowly gulped, instinctively knowing, and slowly walking to the back room where her body had been laid out on a table. This time, she was there alone, just as she had been that night. Her chest fell rapidly up and down, breaths wheezing out of her mouth painfully. Her eyelids were falling down but her eyes fell on him, looking unfocused, "...Scott..."

He was startled when she looked right at him. This memory was different. He wasn't watching himself in third person but reliving it himself. "Jessie... why the hell did you stay? Why did you tell us?"

She swallowed loudly, "If I did... you wouldn't have let me—help."

"But you'd be alive..." he said. "I wouldn't care if you left us behind if it meant you'd live. What are we supposed to do now?"

"Keep going," she whispered. "Don't worry about me anymore. You have so much on your shoulders that you forget that you have a life to live."

"Why?" he asked. "Everything I do, every time I try to help, people keep getting killed. It got your dad in a coma, it got your brother killed, almost killed our parents, now I've gotten you killed."

"I knew exactly what I was doing, Scott," she assured him softly. "And I don't regret a thing. I don't. I've been so tired of fighting for months... I'm not tired anymore..."

Her body faded away from view and Scott turned to face the manifestation of himself, "Okay, I admit it. You're right. But what does any of this have to do with how I get the real Jessie out of here?"

Other Scott patiently leaned back against the wall, "You use the bond you have with her. She knows that you two love each other, otherwise I wouldn't be so locked away in here. But we're passed that now. You need to get her out of here. Just talk to her, get through to her, the way only you can."

Scott nodded slowly, determined, and walked away from his other self, exiting out the door of the vet's office and getting back into the hallway. Now, more driven than ever, he walked right to a door he could finally recognize. One that looked just like the door in her house to her room. He walked right up to it and barreled through it, happening upon a place he hoped he'd never have to return to.

He was back in that abandoned distillery where they fought Jennifer and Deucalion – where Jennifer killed Jessie. He saw her, he finally found her, huddled in a ball against the wall in the very back. He breathed out her name and ran to her, falling to his knees in front of her, "Jessie, look at me."

She looked up at him, tear stained face and all, confused, "Scott? What are you doing here?"

"I came for you," he told her. "I came to bring you back with me. You can't keep going on just a fraction of who you are."

"I'm dangerous," she hissed at him. "I can't be trusted around you guys yet."

"You're not going to hurt any of us, Jessie, I know you're not," he urged her. "I know it was awful to see Alex die. I know it was awful to watch Allison die. But you can't crawl back into this hole, Jessie."

She narrowed her eyes at him, "You think that's why I'm down here? Because they died?"

He was confused, "I don't understand."

She whimpered deep in her throat, "After Alex died, he was just there bleeding on the ground. I was screaming my head off for help, but they were too late. I heard his heart stop beating, and all my emotions came raining down on me all at once. I was such a mess, and suddenly I felt everything. The blood lust, the craving, all of it. And I bit him, Scott. I bit into Alex's neck and started sucking his blood. It took Connor, my cousin and his supernaturally strong friend to pull me off. I was drowning in the blood of a man who loved me so much he died for me. I'm a monster."

She was sobbing heavily as Scott cupped her face and wiped away her tears, "That's not true. You're not a monster, Jessie."

"Yes, I am," she cried. "That's why I ran away after Allison..." She couldn't say the word died. "My emotions were coming back, and I didn't want to lose control with her blood."

"I know why you think you're a monster, Jessie," he whispered to her. "I get it. It's the same way I felt about myself when I was new to being a werewolf, when I had no control over myself. But you know what? You and Stiles helped me get control. You're the one who first told me what an anchor was and how to use it. I know you told me you didn't have an anchor anymore, but come on, of course you do."

She shook her head, "No, I don't. I broke up with Isaac. I left you all behind."

"That doesn't matter," Scott swore to her. "None of that matters. Isaac still cares about you so much. So does Lydia, and Stiles, and Georgie, your family, Derek, my mom, even Peter. And Peter doesn't like anyone. And no one likes him." He beamed when that got a slight laugh from her. He shifted closer to her, pushing her knees aside so that he could hold her. "You are the most bewitching person. You get everyone around you to soften up and just care about you. Any one of us would die for you, just like you died for all of us."

"What if I lose control?" she asked. "I already tried to bite you."

"I'm gonna help you," he promised. "Just like you helped me. I will be with you every step of the way. But we need you back, Jessie. Stiles needs you... I need you."

"If I stay down here, I'll still be able to help," she murmured, grasping at straws of excuses.

"No, it's not gonna work anymore," he protested. "I need the real Jessie back."

"Why, Scott?" she asked, raising her voice. "Why do you need me back so badly?"

"Because I love you," he whispered. There was something exuberantly freeing about finally admitting it to her. Not to his vision of her. Not to the emotionless version of her. To the real her. "I love you and I need you back. You have all of us here for you to be your anchors. Take your pick."

"I don't know what to say to that," she muttered, looking at him in awe.

"I know you feel the same," he told her, confident for once.

She flushed in embarrassment, "How could you possibly know that?"

"Because you told me," he smirked, thinking about his journey through her mind. "Now, let's get out of here, okay?"

She nodded through her tears, smiling now, "Thank you, Scott."

"You don't have to thank me for loving you," he pressed his forehead to hers, "I'm always going to love you." The area around them started to quake, a bright light starting to envelop them. Just as it consumed them, Scott leaned down to press his lips to hers.

The next moment, he felt himself falling onto his back, back in the woods where he'd found her with Connor, Gavin and Lydia. Lydia was crouching in front of him, on her knees, "Scott? Scott, are you okay?"

He groaned as she helped him sit up, "Yeah, fine. Did it work?"

She helped him to his feet and he looked over to see Connor helped Jessie to her feet. She groaned, holding the back of her neck, and froze when she caught sight of him. He took her in – she looked disheveled and tired, but she looked like her. Her eyes that were taking him in, slowly faded from their bright glowing blue to her original brown color. She had found a new anchor. "Scott? Was that really you?"

He smiled and nodded and readily caught her when she lept over to him with blurring speed, wrapping her arms around him. "I got you," he murmured as he hugged her. "I got you."

"Thank you," she gasped, emotional. "I missed you. I missed you so much, Scott."

"I know," he pressed his face into her neck. "I missed you too."

"Scott?" he heard her small voice squeak into his neck before she pulled her face back to look at him, looking utterly lost and sad.

"What?" he asked with rushed concern, wondering what was wrong now.

"I'm really sorry I died on your birthday," she told him, a tear falling down her cheek.

He actually sighed in relief, laughing a little at her words, "Don't worry about it. You can make it up to me on my next one."

Next one is the last chapter, and then onto season four after edits are done. Thanks to all reading, let me know what you think of what I've done here with Scott and Jessie too.

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