Author's note: Woooo guys sorry about the wait! I tried to get this up earlier, but my job takes up soooo much time and it's really cramping my style. As always thanks so much to those of you who reviewed the last chapter! Love yaaa :-)

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Chapter 34

"Kate," Derek growled. And indeed, when the bullet-ridden door swung open, she was revealed. She looked completely at home with a machine gun propped at her hip and a throwing knife stuffed into her front pocket. Aside from being armed, however, she appeared disturbingly normal; her dirty blonde hair was in loose curls and she wore a black top and a tight-fitting pair of jeans – not exactly fighting (or hunting, as she would more likely consider it) attire.

"The one and only, babe," she sneered wickedly. "Well, well, well, what do we have here? A little pack initiation in the works? Derek, honey, didn't you learn your lesson? The whole pack thing hasn't exactly worked out for you in the past…"

Derek gave her a look of searing hatred, but clenched his jaw in an effort to remain silent. He would not give her the satisfaction of knowing she could anger him. She didn't deserve that power.

Amy, on the other hand, couldn't keep words of loathing from tumbling out of her mouth. "Get out of my house," she spat, fists balled at her sides; she was so furious that she could feel her fingernails begin to draw blood from the palms of her hands.

"Now sweetie," she started with a condescending smile, "didn't your mommy and daddy teach you not to be rude to your neighbors? I only want to have a little chat. You know, I should be thanking you, really. You all saved me a lot of trouble! Now I only have to deal with the extermination of one alpha instead of two. Not that I'd have really minded it, but it took me forever to get the bloodstains out of my Manolos after the last hunt – rule of thumb: never wear suede. But anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah, I should be thanking you – all of you. I mean, from the way things have been going, I could probably leave you guys to go at it and eventually there'd only be one left. But I don't want to miss out on all the fun."

She shifted her grip on the machine gun and immediately, everyone in the room (with the obvious exception of Kate and Amy) transformed into werewolves and bared their teeth. Amy's father, not completely in his alpha form, rushed to the front of the group and stood poised in front of Kate.

"So jumpy," she taunted, "Just like every other animal." In the blink of an eye, she raised the gun to be level with Mr. Bell's face.

He was behind her with his hands around her throat before she could pull the trigger. Amy had expected her to cower or beg for her life, but her grin merely grew. "Careful, Jeff, your wife is right there," she warned suggestively, reveling in aggravating him.

Suddenly, another round of shots pierced the house. Amy's father snapped his head to look behind him, and, sure enough, Chris Argent appeared with reinforcements.

Everything that proceeded happened so quickly that Amy wasn't quite sure what had actually taken place. With a careless flick of his wrists, her father snapped Kate's neck. There wasn't even a struggle; it was just a clean break, without any hesitation whatsoever on his part. Kate hadn't even known it was coming and she didn't have any opportunity to react. The woman's body crumpled to the floor and Chris' regrettably heart wrenching call of despair echoed into the moonlit neighborhood. Derek flinched and Amy's mother averted her gaze, but Amy herself stared, transfixed. She had just witnessed her father murder someone before her very eyes.

And then he vanished.

Chris pursued him, but the other two hunters turned their sights first to Kate's dead body, then to Derek and the remaining Bells, and finally to Amy in particular. One man whispered something inaudible to his companion and tightened his grip on his rifle.

Although Amy hadn't heard what he'd said, Derek, Ian, and her mother had. "No!" he snarled viciously. "Don't even think about it."

They raised their rifles and took aim; one at Amy's mother, and the other at Ian. They managed to get them with silver bullets, but didn't inflict any substantial damage. In the commotion, however, Derek took the opportunity to usher Amy out of the house and attempt to get her away from the scene.

However, this was a grave mistake.

Outside, behind the houses, the yard was dotted with hunters. One electrocuted Derek with what appeared to be a cattle prod and pried him away from Amy. Derek fought tooth and nail against the hunters, and eventually he was aided by Mrs. Bell and Ian. But by the time they had apprehended (or, to put it more inelegantly, killed) everyone, Amy was nowhere to be found; she had been brought inside the Argents' house.

Amy kicked and thrashed and screamed in an attempt to break free, but her efforts were lost. She was gagged almost as soon as she'd been grabbed, only to be hauled off by several men far bigger than herself.

They brought her to the Argents' basement. It felt strange, she couldn't help but notice, to be dragged so unwillingly into a place that she had visited many times before. It was all so surreal that it felt like some impossible nightmare rather than reality.

She could hear Allison shrieking a story above them through the floorboards as the hunters tied her to a chair in the center of the ill-lit room. Soon, Allison's mother appeared in front of her, looking absolutely livid. As it turned out however, this anger was not directed towards her.

"What is wrong with you idiots?" she fairly snarled at Amy's captors. The teen felt a surge of hope that the elder woman might be protecting her.

"Ma'am?" one questioned meekly, obviously shocked by her hostility.

"Why in god's name would you take her?" she clarified, still seething.

"She is the link between the creatures," the other explained, "She is our best shot at getting them to surrender."

"Or she is the one thing that will make them band together! Use your heads!" And just like that, Amy's hopes were dashed. She was nothing more than a pawn.

"The police are coming," Allison's mother continued, pressing her fingers to her temples, "The neighbors heard the shots. They can't know that we have a hostage."

"Should we let her go?" one of the men asked dumbly.

"No, you fool," she scoffed, "We've already got her, we might as well find a use for her. But for now, we need to hide her. Keep her in the panic room for the time being," she instructed callously, her ice-cold eyes bearing into Amy without any trace of sympathy.

Amy had never thought Allison's mother was particularly friendly, but she was shocked to discover that she was downright inhuman. The men carried her chair to another part of the basement where there was a metal storage cabinet. After typing the combination into the keypad and opening the doors, they revealed the aforementioned "panic room." It cut into the wall behind the cabinet, thus making it much larger that it outwardly appeared. It took them all of one minute to place the completely defenseless Amy into the room and lock the door behind her; even if she could get the gag off and scream for help, no one would hear her through the thick steel walls. She was defenseless, and all she could do was wait for someone to rescue her. She hated it.

When Sheriff Stilinski received the call informing him that gunshots had been heard in Amy and Allison's neighborhood, he'd thought he had concealed it from Stiles. However, as always, his son had somehow managed to overhear (unbeknownst to his father) and was sent into a frenzy. In his mind, there could be only one cause for such an altercation: the Argents and the Bells had finally clashed.

He was forced to sit at his desk, idly tapping his pencil to his notebook, and pretend to focus. It wasn't until he heard the surefire sound of his dad's engine starting that he scrambled to his feet and jetted into his car. Once he was racing on his way to neighborhood, he called Scott.

"What is it?" he asked irritably.

"Dude, we have a problem," Stiles answered, his tone uncharacteristically solemn.

"What?"

"My dad just got a call – there were gunshots in Amy and Allison's neighborhood."

"Shit. Alright man, I'm on my way."

The conversation ended, and Stiles looked at his speedometer; he prayed that all the cops had gone to the scene, seeing as he was going 65 miles per hour in a 25 zone. When he reached the entrance to the cul-de-sac, he could see flashing police lights ahead of him. Making a hasty decision, he swerved and parked his car in the grass along the side of the road. The last thing he needed was his father recognizing his Jeep.

Then, under the cover of darkness, he ran into the housing development and towards his friends' homes. Once he was in front of them, he noticed that whatever had happened was not obviously apparent. Of course, there were now several police cars parked on the street and the Bells' front door was wide open, but other than that nothing seemed too out of place. So, he snuck along the brick wall of Amy's house, towards the backyard. When he got closer, however, he noticed what had gotten everyone in a tizzy. There was what appeared to be a body lying limply just inside Amy's house. He couldn't see who it was, though, because the majority of the police officers had huddled around the site.

He looked briefly towards the Argents' and saw that his father was speaking on the porch with Allison's mother. She seemed extremely distraught, crying and pointing wildly to the Bells'. Stiles continued his trek towards the backyard and saw several officers crowded around a handful more lifeless forms in the grass.

But what disturbed him most was the fact that he couldn't find anyone that he knew. The Bells, Allison, Derek, and Scott were all nowhere to be found.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, however, he felt someone put their hand over his mouth. After the initial panic dissipated, he spun around, expecting Scott. To his surprise and chagrin, he was instead faced with a very battered and very enraged-looking Derek. Stiles dark eyes widened involuntarily, and the green-eyed werewolf pressed his finger to his mouth and made an agitated face to order him to be quiet.

"What the hell happened?" Stiles hissed, deliberately disobeying him. To their great fortune, the police were too enthralled with the carnage and the dismayed Mrs. Argent to even begin to notice them.

After swallowing the urge to bash Stiles' face in, Derek, answered, "Kate's dead. Amy's dad killed her. The Bells ran off after him and Chris Argent after fighting off the rest of the hunters."

"Where are Amy and Allison?" Stiles demanded, now sufficiently worried.

Derek cocked his head towards the Argents'. "They're both in there. They took Amy hostage," he growled.

"Does Allison know?"

"I don't know, but we're about to find out."

As if on cue, Scott jumped from the Argents' roof to the Bells' and dropped down beside the other two. "Do you guys know what is going on?" he demanded. "Allison is freaking out and she says that no one will tell her anything." The three tilted their heads to look at Allison, who was staring out her window with a dull expression in her eyes. "She said all she heard was gunshots and she hasn't seen her Aunt Kate since," he added.

Stiles and Derek shared a look, silently determining who would inform Scott. Eventually Stiles explained, "Amy's dad killed Kate. Then the rest of her family apparently went on a murderous rampage and took out a bunch of the other hunters. Allison's dad is out there chasing after them."

Scott suddenly looked very nervous. "Where's Amy?" he asked tentatively.

"They have her," Stiles told him bluntly. Derek wasn't looking at either of the teens, instead opting to glare daggers at Mrs. Argent, who was now leading Sheriff Stilinski into the house.

"We have to help her!" Scott exclaimed.

"No shit," Stiles muttered, "I'm working on it. That place is crawling with cops and werewolf hunters."

"I don't care," Derek snarled. Now that the police had disappeared into the residence, he started towards the basement door. However, Stiles grabbed the sleeve his leather jacket in an effort to stop him. Derek looked at the physical contact in undisguised contempt and Stiles quickly removed his hand to avoid imminent pain.

"We can't just go barging in there," he tried apologetically. "Look, I want to save her too, but this requires careful planning –"

Stiles was cut off by the two werewolves actively disobeying him and sprinting towards the house. Once safely in the shadows and out of view of any of the windows, Scott scaled the wall up to Allison's bedroom window.

Stiles rolled his eyes and slowly trailed after the other two. "And do they listen to me? No, of course not! Because no one ever listens to Stiles, he's just a silly human," he mumbled crossly to himself.

Sensing Scott in the room, Allison turned around abruptly to face the window. She was in a horrible state; her eyes were red and puffy and her usually well-coifed brown locks were in tangles. She could tell from his grave demeanor that something was seriously wrong.

"What is it?" she demanded, her voice hoarse from shouting.

"A-Allison, your aunt…" he stammered sympathetically.

She collapsed onto her bed. "I knew it," she said blankly. "…Who?"

"Amy's dad," he answered uncertainly. "Al, look, they have Amy in the basement…"

Allison let out a bark of mirthless laughter. "I'm locked in here," she scoffed.

"The police are downstairs."

"I know. My mom doesn't want me going down there because she's afraid I'll turn them in. And quite frankly, I think I might."

"Allison, do you know where in the basement they might have put Amy? It would have to be somewhere quiet – I can't hear any shouting or anything."

She shook her head mutely, still not meeting Scott's worried gaze. "They usually did all that sort of stuff in the cellar of the Hale house." However, she suddenly seemed to realize something. "There is the panic room, though…"

"The panic room? Can you lead me to it?"

"Like I said, I'm locked in here."

Scott walked over to the door and used his elbow to bang the doorknob completely off. The door swung open without a problem. "Someone will have heard that," he said urgently, "Go around to the basement door and let us in, we don't have much time." Without another word, he leapt from her window. Allison quickly rubbed her eyes and took a deep breath in a vain attempt to compose herself. Then, she started down that hallway.

To be continued…

Author's note: Yo peeps, please review. I know I'm a review whore, I will not even attempt to deny it, but lemme just put it this way - if you average the number of people who have subscribed and favorited, each chapter should have around 230 reviews, which would put this at 7,590 reviews (I'm not counting this chapter). That's pretty sad! Please guys, it only takes a sec!

Also on another note muchos gracias again to Choco23Symphony, SamiLynn23, and Kali-Wolfchilde for making banners! You guys are awesome! (links at the top of the page/my profile, the one shown is by yours truly but that shall change once I figure out how to work with this blasted website...).

Lemme know what you thought of this and what you thought of the last episode. I love hearing what you guys think of the show. I think the last ep. was probably my favorite to date. I don't ship Derek and Stiles, but some of those scenes were just blatant fanservice and I loved every second of it. Honestly I actually don't even ship anything but Allison/Scott (and myself with every male castmember, but that's another matter entirely), but even I found myself rooting for Derek and Stiles. I just love them both so much. And omg Derek kissing Erica? Thoughts? I think that's the first time we see Derek kiss anyone, right? Oh lordy. Anyway, lemme know!