Two Pack II: Teen Wolf Season Four

by lordtrayus

The Nogitsune is gone, Scott and Isaac are back together, and Stiles has gone back to normal. But, rather than deal with the grief of losing Allison, Scott's pack has to contend with Derek's imprisonment, former foes of the twins trying to settle scores, and taming Malia. But worst of all is a new enemy coming to town, bringing with them an old friend who could destroy them all...

38. Episode 10: Illusion Part 1

Dsiclaimer: I sadly do not own Teen Wolf

Two-Pack II

'It can't be it just can't be…' Melissa had spluttered in horror, sagging to the couch in the twin's apartment as Isaac told her what had happened. She had stayed there for a little while before she had heard Scott's heartbroken sniffing in their room and had run through to comfort her son, holding him and hushing him while Isaac had sagged to the couch in defeat. He had sat there in the dark room for quite some time before Camden and Rakaisha had returned, and Kaisha had excused herself while Camden sat beside his brother and wrapped him in a hug, Isaac burying his head in his big brother's shoulder as Scott gave a tortured scream in his room while Melissa tried to calm him down.

'No, he wouldn't, not my boy,' the sheriff had protested when Lydia had told him upon her arrival at the police station, but upon seeing how utterly defeated she looked, his certainty had flickered and upon seeing even the sheriff doubt it, his own lip wobbling, Lydia had broken down in tears, collapsing to the ground, emotionally spent as John slid down the wall beside her, totally overwhelmed.

Liam had asked Garrett to stay with him again that night, and he'd accepted, and even Violet had lingered a lot, eventually falling asleep there, Liam's concerned parents looking on while they called Violet's foster parents watching as a so very tired Garrett and Liam had talked with Violet until the three of them had fallen asleep.

Kira had returned home and had told her worried parents of what had happened, the battle at Eichen, and Stiles and Deaton's betrayal, and Noshiko had sighed sadly as she watched her daughter crumble and finally break down into tears as she sobbed over all that had happened.

Danny and Jackson had slumped home, wondering just how they had managed to lose so epically when they had actually managed to win for a change, and the two of them had just crashed into their beds, totally exhausted by all that had happened.

The twins had also come home, however had retreated to their respective rooms, though not long after, Aiden had come through to sit with Ethan, the two of them staring out into the thunderstorm that was raging over the town, both of them sitting in silence with Aiden's arm around his slightly younger twin's shoulder.

Martagh had laid her former apprentice's body to rest somewhere where she would be safe from any attempt to use her by Agravaine, and allowed herself to feel the emotions she had spent so long trying to suppress, and sat on the forest floor as the rain fell around her, her tears streaming down her cheeks in the rain, lamenting all that she had lost and all that was still to be lost.

Back at his loft, Derek had entered, his entire body shaking before he had let out a vicious roar, making Braeden flinch as he wrecked anything he came into contact with before coming to a stop, his knuckles bleeding, the desk he had shattered in his rage having dug into his hands as he ripped it apart, snarling angrily before Braeden had knelt down beside him, wrapping her arms around him as he reacted to Stiles' betrayal.

Deaton's meant nothing, not in the general scheme of things. Any other time, that would have been the only earth-shattering revelation, but the knowledge now that Stiles had turned on them, betrayed Scott, had virtually driven the now banished vet from their minds. It was Stiles who had wrought this, it was Stiles betrayal that had broken the pack, it was Stiles betrayal that had finished them off.

In Agravaine's lair, highly aware of the smug smirk that Agravaine had on his face as he beheld the treacherous pack member, Stiles, watched with something akin to concern by Bonnie, curled himself into a ball, wrapping his arms around himself as he wept silently for everything that he had done, everything that he had tried to do, and how very wrong he had gotten it all.

And in his apartment downtown, sitting watching the thunderstorm with delighted malice dancing in his eyes, the message from Agravaine informing him that even if Stiles defection hadn't been genuine, it certainly was now, Peter allowed himself a smug smirk of victory as he savoured his glass of whisky.

Scott was all but defeated, now all he needed was one last push…

And then, Peter, would once more be the Alpha.

XX

Melody was less than happy. Alerted to the fact that the pack had been heading to Eichen in order to stop the Pombero before she got any more powerful (she had called off the kill squad she had been preparing to deal with the Pombero lest the pack should fail), Melody had been watching from afar, using her skill in magic to get a better view of the Battle of Eichen.

Truth be told, she was rather impressed. Despite the fact that the pack was disintegrating like an asteroid in a decaying orbit, they still fought rather well together, defeating the various crazy and overly supernatural inhabitants of Eichen as they had pushed on together. They worked well as a team, and she saw the proof of what she had long suspected: the pack, when united, was extremely dangerous, worked better than many adult packs did, and would be a considerable foe should the need ever arise for such a thing to happen.

And then it had all gone to hell, as Stiles' treachery had been revealed by Agravaine, as had Deaton's. And with the betrayal of his mentor, and more significantly, his best friend, Scott's spirit had broken, something fundamental had broken in the pack, and now Melody was going to have to report everything that had happened to her mother, who would be…well, miffed would be an understatement.

Actually, absolutely bloody furious, indeed apoplectic with rage, all of the above would be an understatement as to how mad her mother would be.

It wasn't like it was her fault, she thought bitterly to herself as she sat with her legs dangling over the side of a building in the centre of town, giving herself some space to think, enjoying the company of the flower boxes around her. She always liked being up high, preferably with a lot of flowers, or failing that in a nice warm bath, they always helped her think.

So, Deaton was now gone. After the revelation last night, he had taken Scott's words to heart, and had indeed left town. Melody was in two minds about this, and she had pondered what to do as he had driven out of town, did she go after him?

After all, he had caused this entire…cataclysm. She had warned time and again not to withhold things from the pack, and he had done so all over again, and this time it had been pertaining to Stiles, and as a result the entire pack was now ripped asunder because of his actions. His silence on such matters, combined with his manipulations of Scott, his bright ideas to reactivate that wretched stunted tree stump among other things, the trust between him and the pack he had so coveted to fix the gaping hole left in his heart by the tragic murder of the Hale pack, was gone, destroyed, perhaps irrevocably.

He was to blame, and now that Scott had banished him, he was essentially alone in the world and furthermore had deserted his responsibilities to the Queen and hence to the Beasturo that so owned him. But…perhaps it was the time she had spent floating on the periphery of Scott's pack, but she hadn't been able to bring herself to go after him. She knew there was a chance, a high chance actually, that she would live to regret it, because Deaton still wanted to free his people, and without his love for Scott acting as a restraint, he could very well be quite rash in trying to achieve that aim. But she had seen him, his pained expression, the tears pouring down his face as he made good his escape from Scott's anger, she had seen him looking broken, and despite her own distaste for him, she still couldn't bring herself to go and finish him off, however tempting it might have been. Perhaps the problem was the fact that it hadn't been her who had so defeated him, but she discounted that as an idea. No, he had done this to himself, but, in some ways she did pity him.

He had lost sight, as so many did, of what was truly important. The sad thing from Deaton's perspective was that if he had been straight with Scott from the start, if he hadn't attempted to play him, to manipulate him, he probably would have gotten Scott to side with him in everything anyway. Scott had been like a son to him, and he had burned that bridge when it hadn't needed to be, and in some ways, she did feel sorry for him. He had so wanted Scott to be what he wanted him to be, but in the process had lost sight of what made Scott Scott, and hence had proceeded to kick start a chain reaction of events which had now lost him Scott.

And now he was in the wind, banished from Beacon Hills, leaving Scott without his Emissary (however questionable his role in that regard might have been) and wounded by a deep betrayal, and also, leaving her without anyone to vent her frustrations onto.

Yes, if the pack survived the next few days, she was going to have to work much harder in order to keep her finger on the pulse, but for the moment that was the least of her worries.

Did she send people after Deaton? She could make an educated guess where he was going, after all, with his old life denied to him, the obvious choice for him to flee to would be his true masters, not his owned ones, he would flee to Britain, to Stonehenge, to the Fivefold. She could easily intercept him on the way there, but at the end of the day, what use would he be to Maeve and her cohort of would-be rebels? Giving them information on the pack's dating life, that would be of little use to Maeve?

Besides, she thought to herself ruefully, chances are the pack was about to be destroyed anyway. Scott was broken due to Stiles' betrayal, and try though Isaac and Melissa might, feeling the pain of such an intimate betrayal would be something that they would never overcome despite their best efforts.

Isaac was busy trying to keep Scott together, but as he had been the one who had learned first of Stiles' defection, would that come and blow back onto him, would he get the blame from Scott? If so, that would finish off the two of them as well, and leave the Alpha without his second in command and his Prime Beta, which would leave Scott extremely isolated and vulnerable, and hence, easy prey for that damned dog.

Jackson was dying, poisoned by the Gwyllgi, and even her research, she'd even had her handmaiden Luana research into it, there just wasn't that much information on Baleful Breath, none of it had yielded any results, he had a week, perhaps two left at the most before Agravaine's poison overcame him.

If he lost his best friend again, Danny would be done with the supernatural, perhaps done all together, and while he and Ethan had fixed their issues, would it survive the implosion of Scott's pack?

Malia, who other than Luana had actually become Melody's closest friend in Beacon Hills, was still MIA, though she had deduced, as had some of the others, that it was most likely that Malia had turned back into a coyote, overwhelmed by everything and had fled to avoid having to try and deal with the pain she was in. Melody felt bad for her, she actually did genuinely care for Malia, finding her blunt nature, her dark sense of humour, and her sort of feral enjoyment of life as a rather welcome refrain from everyone else she usually dealt with, and actually missed her friend, who was still lost in the woods with no sign of being able to come home, or indeed, perhaps not even wanting to in the first place.

The twins were also now wavering in their loyalty to Scott, and at the moment only Ethan was in a relationship, and with Aiden being the more dominant twin, should it all go south, there was no guarantee that either of them would remain in town.

Derek was, well, he was Derek, and his anger at Stiles' treachery had been apparent, and after only narrowly avoiding life in prison until her own direct intervention, she wouldn't be surprised if he just cut and run, especially if Scott was falling apart.

Lydia had just killed someone, even if it was in self-defence and while Melody didn't believe that Scott would banish her for that, there was still the fact that the Pombero was the first time Lydia had taken a life. Add that to her lingering feelings over the loss of Allison, the fact that she was still in love with Aiden and the emotional curveball of Jackson's return along with the high degree of stress they had all been under, even she had to be crumbling.

Kira, who had only recently learned of her own supernatural role that she had to play, was also bound to be crumbling as well. While she remained one of Scott's more steadfast supporters, the fact that her mother was genuinely supernatural herself and was bound to be able to see what was going on here, combined with the fact that Kira had unresolved feelings for Scott despite her developing interest in Liam, all were bound to be playing on her mind, which could in turn lead to someone else abandoning the young Alpha.

And then there was the three young human kids, Liam, Garrett and Violet. Violet had been kind of roped into all of this against her will, and was still playing catch up when compared to the other two, but truthfully, if she had any sense, Melody thought the girl would be better abandoning ship and making a run for it, to avoid all that was about to go down.

Garrett and Liam were different, due to their presence at Mason's murder. While the two of them stood by Scott, there was also the fact that they were now bound to be thinking that Stiles was in some way at least peripherally involved in his murder. But would their desire for the justice, for revenge, be enough to keep them from trying to forget the whole thing? Just leaving them all to their fate?

Melody sighed wearily, kneading her temples, an action she had seen repeated a lot over the last little while, and certainly not just by her. The whole thing was such a mess. She had no idea where the pack would even go from here, but she always remembered a description one of her tutors had taught her: stress develops until a crack develops, and then the terra firma suddenly wasn't so firma. She thought that a rather apt analogy for everything that was going on in the pack at the moment. The constant stress of being attacked by the dogs, the Pombero, the Djinn, combined with their normal lives, the aftermath of the Nogitsune and Allison's murder, and all their ups and downs had taken their toll on the pack, and it was starting to disintegrate, ripping itself apart along the seams.

Still, she thought irritably, it was like there was one little clue she was missing, some vital piece of information that so far had eluded her that would help explain why the pack was in such dire straits, it made no sense. The Nemeton corruption, how did that all tie into this? And even taking everything else into account, why the hell had the pack ripped itself apart so quickly, it didn't make sense. Well, it did, it was just the timing that didn't make sense, though admittedly, the revelation of Stiles' betrayal and Scott's own learning curve as an Alpha were probably bound to finish off a nascent pack, despite the presence of the True Alpha.

Either way, Melody had a choice to make. She could report what had happened to her mother now, endure the tongue lashing and get recalled. Or, she could stay in town and try to salvage the situation, and at least see if Scott managed to pull off another divine move like he had when dealing with the Nogitsune. But how would he do that when his own spirit was broken now he had felt the sting of betrayal?

Sighing sadly, feeling exhausted after all that had happened recently, and briefly pondering about Deaton and what she should do about him, feeling at the very least she had sorted out her own milling thoughts even if she hadn't brought anything to a resolution, she extended her wings and caught the wind, flying back towards her apartment. Praying that Luana had run a nice warm bath for her, she sadly looked over at the twins' apartment, where the young True Alpha was, she could practically taste his sadness on the air. Poor Scott.

The thing was, he didn't deserve this, and if Deaton hadn't strung him along and messed him around, which he had done despite her direct orders to the contrary, he might not be in this mess. But there was one constant in this world: if a pack's Alpha was broken, the pack wouldn't be far behind. And if Agravaine realised that there was still one last flicker of thread keeping them together now, he would finish breaking Scott, and take the whole pack down with him. The question now was how long that one remaining thread would take before it snapped completely?

What the hell did she do? Did she let this happen, let the pack implode? Did she sit back and let it happen? She couldn't reveal herself, that was totally out of the question, at the moment Scott would view her true identity as nothing more than a traitor, the same way he currently thought of Deaton and Stiles. But that didn't mean she couldn't help him in some other way, but where did she even start? There was so much to do, so much to fight, so much going wrong, and she wasn't even close enough to any of them aside from Malia and on the periphery, Jackson, enough to even go and try and give Scott a pep talk, to try and help him out of his slump.

She, like the pack she was here to keep an eye on, was stuck in the middle of a rock and a hard place, and was being torn this way and that. Something had to give, but even if it did, would it give in time to save the pack, to save them all?

She glided through the air, pondering her next move, dodging a rather shocked seagull as she did so. Something had to be done, and she certainly didn't want to have to go back to her mother and let her know of her failure, especially when the failure wasn't even hers. If only she could find the missing piece of the puzzle, or at least find something to help the pack, or even just to help Jackson, hell, at this point she'd happily just send them a bunch of flowers if she thought it would help improve the state of things for the pack.

Agravaine had wormed his way into their heads, and had ripped apart the fragile bonds that were keeping the pack together in the aftermath of the devastating loss of one of their own, exacerbated due to the role in her death of one of their own. But even then, even with them all getting unfairly resentful of Scott as he was undergoing his own steep learning curve, there still seemed to be a vital piece of the puzzle that she was missing, one little thing that if she did discover it she could perhaps even turn the tide.

She just wished she could find out what that missing piece was.

At the end of the day, the Corrupter was the main problem. He was extremely powerful, the Beasturo had a large bounty on his head for various indiscretions in the past, however his status as a British national meant that the Fivefold should have dealt with him, but due to either fear or because it suited their narrative, they had failed to do so. And even though, as a weredog he was technically a Beasturo citizen, the fact that he lived in Britain meant that he was ostensibly a Fivefold problem, though through accident or design they had clearly failed miserably to stop him. And now he was here, had killed dozens, spread his poisonous corruption, and was now ripping apart the entire pack who he constantly had on the back foot and seemed to be getting stronger by the day. If only she could help the pack figure out a way to limit or reduce his power, if she could find a way to weaken him even slightly, it could just be the break the pack needed, provided they survived the next few days.

She looked out across the town, and it was the reserve that caught her eye. That was where the Nemeton was, corrupted, twisted and poisoned against the very one who had inadvertently repowered it. Agravaine had corrupted the Nemeton upon his arrival, and the waves of malevolent energy coming from it were to blame for the rising number of suicides, murders, crimes, despair and whatever all else was happening in town. Melody also suspected that the corruption of the damn tree was part of the reason Scott's pack was getting it's ass kicked so much, as part of Scott's power source had been turned against him and with Scott being inextricably linked to it due to his role in its return to power, that obviously wasn't much help.

She briefly wondered if they had all underestimated exactly how symbiotic Scott's relationship with the Nemeton would be when he had repowered it, after all the Nemeton would be able to sense that a True Alpha had arisen and actually had the power to protect it. Truth be told, she wouldn't be surprised if it was more than just a power boost for Scott, but obviously with the damn thing as corrupted as it was at the moment there was no way of testing her theory.

In fact, she mused, hovering in mid air, her mind abuzz, what if it all, in its own way came back to the Nemeton? So far she had allowed it to remain unchanged, partly because she didn't particularly like the rapidly growing tree. Deaton had reactivated it for his own purposes, she knew that, and he had masterfully worked Scott and his friends into a trap in which they would be forced to give power back to it. As such, Scott, Stiles and Allison had become linked to it, and with Allison gone, the intensity of the relationship between Scott and Stiles and the Nemeton had to be getting stronger. Indeed, if that were the case, with it being as corrupted as it now was, perhaps it was actually weakening Scott, and furthermore, combined with Agravaine's corruption spreading negative waves of energy through the town, perhaps the corruption of the Nemeton was actually more of a threat than she had originally thought.

Due to Deaton's actions and the Nemeton's own stunted nature due to being cut down, she had dismissed the damn tree stump, but what if she'd gotten it wrong? What if Scott and the Nemeton were actually symbiotic, and her lack of interference in this matter had helped make matters worse? With Agravaine having corrupted it, it had weakened Scott and strengthen the damn Gwyllgi, but could it perhaps be linked to the pack's ongoing implosion?

Melody smiled grimly, believing she was on to something.

Yes, she mused, she could well be right. Agravaine had weakened Scott seizing control of the damn tree, and ongoing chaos had ensued throughout the town, and more importantly, throughout the pack. If that small advantage he had could be offset…

Her mind now aflame with conviction and purpose, she headed back to her apartment, where her best friend and handmaiden Luana was awaiting. It was obvious to her: they couldn't defeat Agravaine until they purged the Nemeton, and they couldn't purge the Nemeton until they defeated Agravaine. But perhaps, if she and Luana put their heads together, maybe, just maybe, they could find what they were looking for, a way to purge the Nemeton, to cleanse it and return it to its rightful guardians. And, she thought with a satisfied smirk, if she was right and they did succeed in doing this, then perhaps the pack may be able to pull off a divine move after all.

XX

"How didn't we know though?" Ethan asked in a whisper, the entire pack still reeling from Stiles' betrayal, and Aiden looked at him sadly, at a loss himself.

"We just…didn't. Scott and the others have been trying to get through to him for months, and he didn't listen to them, he didn't talk to them, and now…now this is what's happened. He betrayed us, easy as that." He said harshly, there was no use pretending otherwise, or wishing it happened, or looking for some form of out, no, Stiles wasn't being coerced as far as they knew, he had just turned on them, abandoned them, stabbed his best friend in the back for that sadistic, psychotic English mutt.

"What-what do we do?" Ethan asked nervously, the murderous light that Scott had spent so long trying to make sure was purged from his twin was returning, and it was making him uneasy.

"What do you think? Stiles betrayed us, betrayed Scott, and broke him. So if we see Stiles, we kill him." Aiden replied with a snap, and Ethan looked at him uncertainly.

"But it's Stiles, he's one of us, and he was still possessed by the Nogitsune, what if all this is something to do with that, what if it's still in him somehow? If we can save him…"

"If? There's no 'if' about it Ethan. He betrayed us, betrayed Scott, our Alpha, his best friend, all for Agravaine! No, there's no if. If we see him, we kill him." Aiden declared, then stormed from the kitchen of their apartment, his twin following nervously in his wake.

"You agree?" Camden asked his brother softly, as the two of them had been watching unheeded by the twins from the door of Camden's bedroom, and Isaac shrugged, his face a mask of indifference.

"I don't know. Part of me agrees with Aiden, I want to kill him with my bare hands for what he did to Scott," he growled, his boyfriend was such a state, and he knew it was all Stiles' fault, "but the other part of me is with Ethan, what if it was something we missed? What if there's more to it? And even if there isn't…" he lamented tiredly, rubbing his eyes which had large bags under them, "he's still Stiles, still is-was, Scott's best friend, and one of mine too. I don't know what to think anymore, what to do."

Camden looked sadly at his brother, his face was even paler than usual, he looked like he had gotten a little thinner, the bags under his eyes had bags under them, and the look of perpetual exhaustion, worry and sadness was killing his brother who couldn't do a damn thing about him.

"How's Scott?" Camden asked, and Isaac looked worriedly into Scott's room, biting his lip anxiously.

"I don't know. I've tried to help him, but I don't know what to do. I've never seen him like this before, and I want to help him, to make him feel better, but I don't have the first clue how to go about it. I'll see if he's…well." Isaac tailed off, sounding beaten, and headed back into his room, Camden's heart breaking for them as he headed to the kitchen to make them some coffee.

How could Stiles have done this, what on earth did he stand to gain from betraying them all? It didn't make any sense at all. Scott didn't deserve this. Admittedly Scott had been a little cold with him when he had arrived, but in hindsight that was to be expected. Camden had been hiding something, unnecessarily it now transpired, and Scott had picked up on it. And as Isaac was so important to Scott, it was only natural that the kid would be rather standoffish with this complete stranger coming in and trying to take Isaac from him. But ever since Scott had learned about Rakaisha he had been more than welcoming, and Camden had thoroughly enjoyed getting to know this remarkable, dorky, sweet kid, who had so captured Isaac's heart and affections, and who also happened to be the leader of a band of teenagers trying to prevent the supernatural running amok through town. Scott had become like another little brother to him, and was less inclined to protest if Camden coddled him a little bit, he thought with a rueful amused smile.

He was still trying to get Isaac to accept his big brother being back and having someone to coddle him other than Scott, but Scott seemed to quite enjoy hanging out with another big brother figure. Well, at least he had until recently, as Mason's murder seemed to have destroyed any enjoyment he had in life and had started to break Scott inside. He might have been able to recover eventually, that had been until Stiles and Deaton's treachery had been revealed, and it was clear that Scott was just broken, and the kid so did not deserve that.

Hell, none of them did.

Where the hell did they go from here?

He knew the whole pack was still in shock from Stiles left field double-cross, but eventually, the shock would wear off, and Camden dreaded to think what would happen when it did. Isaac had told him how the pack was becoming more and more restless, insubordinate even, with Scott's leadership for a while now, and he had a horrible feeling that this latest disaster would move subversive mutterings into full blown rebellion. Camden groaned inwardly, this wasn't Scott's fault, hell, even the greatest American leaders, like George Washington, had suffered severe defeats before becoming the heroes that everyone knew today. But the pack were growing restless, and were unfairly blaming Scott for everything that had gone wrong, and he knew Isaac was trying to keep it all from Scott, but eventually, Scott would find out.

And if it went down like Camden had a horrible gut feeling that it would, it would destroy the young Alpha, who was being held together by Melissa, Isaac and his own stubbornness alone.

They had to do something. Scott needed a win, and even with Lydia defeating the Pombero, it certainly wasn't providing the break that it was meant to, coming with Stiles betrayal right on the heels.

He had to help, they all did, and if they could get something to break, it might hopefully just give Scott a little bit of fire back. Hell, if nothing else, it might give him back some hope, which the entire pack was sorely in need of.

"Morning sweetie." Melissa said tiredly, looking just as exhausted as her son and her remaining surrogate did, and he passed her a cup of coffee which he had been making for himself, and then proceeded to make his own one.

"Morning. Did you sleep?" he asked, leaning on the counter next to her, and she shook her head grimly, her eyes pained, her face haggard, she looked…spent, just like Scott did.

"Not much, I can't stop thinking about it. I keep hoping it's a dream, a nightmare. I just, I don't get it, I don't understand. There has to be more to this, there has to be something we don't know, something we're missing." She insisted, and he hesitantly wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and she slumped in defeat against him.

"God I hope so. I really do." He said softly, squeezing her a little as Rakaisha ambled in, tussling a hand through her hair to shake the excess dampness from her shower out of it, and she came and leaned beside Melissa, leaning her head on her shoulder, of the woman who had become a mix between best friend, sister and mother in the short time they had known each other.

"It'll all work itself out. It has to." She promised earnestly, and Melissa smiled a little.

She was clearly new in town, nothing else could explain such boundless optimism,

"I hope you're right sweetie." She admitted, and sighed tiredly, and Camden looked at her curiously, a small smile playing on his lips.

"Hey, Kaisha and I think we have an idea on how to stop Ifrit. We'd be happy to have you come along and help us kick ass if you wanted?" he offered, and Melissa looked at him in surprise.

Ever since Ifrit had ambushed him, he and Kaisha had been brainstorming, all the while waiting for the Djinn assassin's next move. And after the last few days, inspired by an urge to kick the crap out of the evil Djinn who was also harming the people they cared about, they thought they finally had a plan, that if they were right, would finally rid them of the evil Djinn.

Melissa pondered. She had rarely gotten involved in the fighting aspect of the pack's lives, but the way things were going, with Stiles turning on them, and with how broken her son was, she wanted to give someone a little payback, wanted just for once to make the bad guys suffer.

And if said bad guy was the asshat who had torched her house, so much the better.

"Hmm, I might be interested. What have you got in mind?" she asked hesitantly, and upon seeing the cautiously optimistic smiles of Camden and Rakaisha, she wondered if perhaps everyone she cared about wasn't completely down and out just yet, and if there was indeed still a little bit of hope to be found in the shitstorm they were currently in.

XX

Scott was sitting on the bed when Isaac went in, and Isaac looked at his boyfriend worriedly. Ever since it had become apparent that Stiles had turned on them, Scott had gone through the whole range of emotions, from anger, to despair, to crying his eyes out to simply sitting in silence as he tried to get his head round the fact that his best friend had betrayed him. But now he was just sitting on the bed, his arms wrapped around his legs looking into nothing, and Isaac's stomach churned as he beheld what had been made of the man he loved.

Scott was broken. If he was angry, or crying, Isaac might be able to do something about it, but with Scott sitting there staring into nothing, looking so lost and completely hopeless, he didn't know what to do.

"Scott?" Isaac asked softly, his insides knotting with worry.

Stiles had done this to him, Scott's brother had done this to him. As he felt at least once a day, he felt the burning surge of fury that he hadn't killed Stiles in the basement of Eichen like he had so wanted to. But then he would have lost Scott himself, because Scott would never have forgiven him. And besides, he wasn't even sure that he wanted to kill Stiles. He wanted to kick the crap out of him, sure, but did he want him dead like Aiden did? He wasn't so sure about that one, and not just because of how Scott would react.

"What did I do wrong Isaac?" Scott asked softly, and Isaac felt his heart break hearing so much confusion and pain in his voice, though horrible though it sounded, he felt a tiny little trickle of relief, upset Scott he could help (he hoped), utterly devoid of hope Scott was a little harder.

"You didn't do anything wrong." Isaac insisted, crossing to the bed and sitting beside his boyfriend, taking his hand in his own and squeezing it.

However Scott then jerked his hand away from Isaac, and Isaac flinched a little despite himself as Scott combined his action with a savage glare. His eyes then softened and he realised what he had done, and gently lowered his hand so he could take Isaac's instead, hating the slight shake that Isaac now had because of him, making him feel even worse than he already did.

"See what I mean? You keep saying that but I must have done something wrong! Stiles has run off and joined Agravaine, the others all want rid of me because I can't fix anything, what am I meant to do? What did I get so wrong that they all…" Scott began, stroking Isaac's hand with his thumb reassuringly, his voice tailing off, and Isaac, getting himself back under control and stopping himself shaking, knowing he'd been stupid to think Scott would ever do that to him, squeezed his hand reassuringly.

"Scott, I need you to listen to me. This isn't your fault, I mean it. And no, it's not just because I'm sleeping with you," he told him softly, and reached up, gently snaking his arm around his boyfriend's shoulder's and allowing him to lean his head on his shoulder, where he could nuzzle him a little, pressing a kiss into his hair, "you haven't done anything wrong Scott. Stiles…he hasn't been right for months, ever since we saved him from the Nogitsune. Did we miss that he was obviously much more destroyed by that than we thought? Maybe. But we went to him time and again, trying to get him to open up, to talk to us, and he didn't. Stiles didn't want to burden us, and instead of talking to us he…he did this." He finished, feeling helpless, and Scott sighed.

"Yeah, because clearly Agravaine's a better option for him than me. Why didn't I know?" Scott asked himself softly, his voice a mere whisper, and Isaac sniffed, feeling tears materialise in his own eyes.

It was Stiles who had done this, Stiles who had so broken Scott like this. Scott didn't deserve this, he hadn't done anything wrong. But somehow he was getting the blame for everything, and now on top of everything else his best friend had turned on him, betraying him at a time when he clearly needed him the most. It was like Isaac had told Stiles, yeah, Scott had him but there was a reason the pack had two seconds-in-command, and without his best friend, Scott was spiralling. And Isaac didn't know how to fix him.

"He didn't want you to know. Scott, you can't blame yourself for everything. This was Stiles choice." He told him, stroking his hand through Scott's hair, and Scott nodded sadly on his shoulder, and Isaac could feel his tears soaking into his tshirt.

"Yeah, his choice to make a run for it because I'm going to get everyone killed because I don't know what I'm doing." He whispered sadly, and Isaac shook his head.

"No you're not. Mason's…he wasn't your fault, that was Agravaine being sadistic, pure and simple. And I can't believe, no matter how much easier it might make it to understand all this, that Stiles had anything to do with that, he would never have allowed that. I just…I just don't understand why he'd join Agravaine, but I do know that if anyone's going to get us out of this, it's you." He whispered, and Scott snorted a little, and then pulled his head up, looking at Isaac with an odd expression on his face.

"Why do you think that?" he asked in disbelief, and Isaac smiled a little, and kissed his nose.

"Because you idiot, I know you. You always find a way. The others might have forgotten that, a lot recently," he admitted, there was no point hiding it from Scott, he knew they'd all been talking behind his back and trying to hide it from him wasn't going to help, "but you always do find a way. And at the end of the day," he muttered shyly, blushing a little, "you're still my hero."

And Isaac was rewarded for his efforts by a small hint of a smile on his boyfriend's face, that same cute, dorky smile he had when both he and Stiles had told him he was the hot girl, and that was enough for now.

"Really?" he asked softly, and he hesitantly raised his hand, taking solace in the fact that Isaac didn't flinch, then wrapped his arm around Isaac, Isaac resting his head on his shoulder.

He had missed this, doing it this way round. He'd been so miserable recently, suffering the loss of Mason, and now the sting of the betrayal of his best friend, and he'd been the one leaning on Isaac, but at the end of the day, he loved it when Isaac was the one leaning on him, he thought with a blush, he loved being Isaac's hero.

"Really. Always will be." Isaac admitted ruefully, picking up Scott's hand and kissing it, and Scott allowed himself a small smile, which Isaac was really quite pleased with himself for causing.

They sat in silence for a while, and while Scott was far from fixed, and far from coping, he was at least feeling a little better about things, and that was a victory in and of itself. They sat there, Isaac leaning on Scott's shoulder, with Scott gently threading his finger's through Isaac's blond hair, while Isaac stroked his boyfriend's hand softly.

"Hey, you know, before, you know I would NEVER do that to you, right?" Scott insisted, emphasising the word, sounding sick at the very thought, and Isaac smiled a little and sat up to look his Alpha boyfriend in the eye.

"I know you wouldn't. You just startled me…that was all." He whispered, and pressed a kiss to Scott's lips, taking his boyfriend's face in his hands and stroking it with his thumb as they did so, Scott only breaking away reluctantly.

"I'm sorry, I would never, ever do that to you, and I-" he prattled insistently, and Isaac smiled a little and leaned his forehead against Scott's.

"Hey, calm down. I know you wouldn't, you just surprised me, it's kind of hardwired into me to react like that you know." He pointed out ruefully, and Scott let out a low, protective growl, his eyes glowing a faint red which made Isaac grin, and he kissed Scott again softly, pushing him back onto the pillows and lying down beside him, leaning his head on his boyfriend's shoulder like he always did, and snuggled into his boyfriend, feeling Scott calming down as they laid beside each other.

"I'm sorry. I need you to know that Isaac, I would never hurt you like that. I wouldn't be able to live with myself." He whispered, pressing a kiss onto the top of Isaac's head, and Isaac, taking Scott's hand in his own, nodded as he kissed Scott's hand gently.

"Hey, I know." He replied, lying beside Scott as he figured at least he had made some progress in trying to get his boyfriend to return to normal.

"Good. Besides, let's face it, you're one of the few people on my side at the moment, I can't afford to lose you too." He admitted, and Isaac looked up at his boyfriend, staring off into the ceiling, and nuzzled him with his nose.

"You won't. Any idea what we do now though?" he asked hesitantly, and Scott sighed, biting his lip as he mused over his options.

He was losing, they all were, but as it was his pack in question, it was his problem. He knew what he wanted to do, he wanted to hunt down Stiles, to talk to him, to beg him to listen to him, to find out what had gone so wrong between them. But there was still Agravaine, what the hell did he do about him? The fight with the Owlman in Eichen had answered a good number of questions, but there was still something he was missing, some vital piece to the whole puzzle of everything that had happened since the dogs had shown up. If he could figure it out, or at least figure out his next move, or a plan, he might be able to fix everything, fix his pack, his friends.

But with everything preying on his mind, his own doubts about his suitability to be an Alpha, the loss of Allison and Mason, and now Stiles betrayal, he didn't know how the hell he should go about it, or even if he could.

Maybe his doubts were right, the nightmares he'd had the last few nights, that he was just going to get everyone he loved killed, that he deserved all of this because he couldn't save people, were all right.

"Scott?" Isaac asked worriedly, sensing that his boyfriend was losing himself to whatever was going on inside his head again, and his boyfriend started a little before wrapping his arm around Isaac a little tighter.

"Not really. I-I want to try and find Stiles, will you come with me?" he asked hesitantly, and Isaac sighed a little, a rueful smile playing on is lips as he did so.

"Anything, you know that," he replied softly, and Scott smiled a little at hearing that familiar reassurance, "but sweetie, he might not want to be found. And…look, I know you want to believe we can bring him back, that you can save him, that there's something we missed," he whispered, his thumb stroking Scott's slightly uneven jaw, "but we might not be able to. This…this might be him." He whispered, hating himself for thinking it, but Scott shook his head stubbornly.

"I can't believe that, I won't believe it. He's my best friend, I can't just let it go Isaac. I have to…I have to know." He whispered sadly, and Isaac's heart broke for him even more hearing the childlike pleading in his voice, and he gently kissed Scott, using his thumb to stroke his eyes, wiping away any traces of tears that may be developing there.

"I know. I'll go with you. Though fair warning…I did try to kill him last time I saw him, when I found out he was betraying you." He admitted, not wanting to meet Scott's eyes as he told him, they hadn't talked about that yet, and well, he…

"Would you have?" Scott asked curiously, and Isaac pondered the answer to his question.

He had been furious, and admittedly bloodlust had informed his actions when he had fought Stiles in Eichen. But despite his fury, his all-consuming rage at his best friend's betrayal, would he have been able to kill him? He didn't know, and truth be told, he wasn't sure if he wanted to know.

"I-I don't know." He replied, and Scott sighed, and Isaac pulled away afraid he'd upset or angered Scott, but Scott simply held him to his side, actually tightened his grip a little.

"I don't know myself either. I don't want to hurt him, not really," he gabbled, running a hand through his hair tiredly, "but on the other hand, I want to drag him home by his hair, or kick the crap out of him, or just beg him to come home, or ask him what went wrong, I just…I just don't know. But if we find him, we can decide then." He decided, sounding so tired and fed up that Isaac cuddled back into him, his hand stroking through Scott's hair worriedly.

He sounded so lost, so broken, so tired, and Isaac could try his best, but how helpful would that be? Had he really helped Scott, had he fixed him in any way? Or was he simply fixing Scott like Stiles had fixed his jeep before Ifrit had torched it, just holding him together with tape and hoping he wouldn't come apart in his hands?

Yeah, he was swinging back towards wanting to kill Stiles again, not going to lie.

"Ok, sounds like a plan. But word of warning, um, Aiden kind of wants to kill Stiles…and knowing him, most likely with fire." Isaac admitted lamely, and Scott groaned, rolling his eyes in annoyance.

"Course he does, figured it was only a matter of time until his homicidal urges came back. Why with fire?" Scott asked wearily, rubbing his temples, and Isaac grinned a little.

"Well, Camden got us steaks last night," he explained, Scott hadn't wanted to eat anything despite Melissa and Isaac's attempts to make him, "and Aiden kind of got excited when he made the peppercorn sauce, there's booze in it, it caught fire, and you know how much he likes fire." He lamented, and Scott groaned even louder.

"Great, that's all I need. Come on, because if Aiden finds Stiles before we do, I am not in the mood to deal with the Great Fire of Beacon Hills caused by my arsonist Beta," he grumbled, getting to his feet, and Isaac laughed, "alright, let's go."

XX

The basement of the Argent's building was silent and still, except for the three people sitting on the chairs that had been set up in the Argent's section where Chris kept his overflow of weapons, ammunition and the more supernaturally inclined weapon items. The people sitting in the chairs were bound to them tightly, with a bag covering their faces as they tried to break themselves free of their restraints. Argent was sitting back in the shadows of the basement, not making a sound, watching them with professional interest.

Mason's death was a tragedy, one that should never have happened. When Isaac had brought Liam and Garrett to him, he had taken Chris aside and privately told him that they had expressed an interest in learning how to fight, or at the very least defend themselves.

"No, absolutely not, they're too young Isaac!" Chris snapped through gritted teeth, storming away from this kid who had somehow become like a son to him when he wasn't looking, he still didn't know how that had happened.

"Don't you think I know that? Mason was too young, and it didn't stop that evil bastard murdering him in cold blood did it?" Isaac pointed out tiredly, leaning on the doorframe to Chris' room, and Chris hesitated slightly, he did have a point there damn it.

He didn't want him to, but he did have a point.

"You're all too young. None of you should be caught up in any of this." Chris griped bitterly, and Isaac simply stayed quiet, watching the man who had become the closest thing he had to a father worriedly.

"Chris?" Isaac asked hesitantly after a while, as Chris was leaning on his desk, staring out of the window with his back to Isaac, and he approached the older man, nervously laying a hand on his back, and Chris chuckled a little as he turned to look at Isaac.

"Did Allison ever tell you how she became a hunter? My sister Kate started leaving all these little hints lying around about everything we had kept from her, and Allison put it all together, albeit with Kate's 'help'. It-it should have been something I told her, taught her. Kate, like Gerard, wanted to get her claws into my daughter. Had her attack Scott…not that that's entirely a bad thing," he chuckled with a small grin, and despite everything that had happened recently, Isaac also allowed himself a small grin, it was oddly comforting to know that if he and Scott ever really fell out, Argent would be on his side regardless, "but she started trying to warp Allison into someone, someone like her. And you yourself were intimately familiar with the damage Gerard did to her when he got his claws into her. I…I should have told her everything so much sooner, or stopped it all together.

See I suspected Kate was up to something, that she was doing something with Allison. I should have stopped her, or just told her myself, but Peter was going around killing people and I had other things on my mind, and when she found out, it was too late at that point to do anything about it.

But see part of me…part of me wanted my daughter to become who she was always meant to be, our matriarch, a leader…my daughter. The other part of me regretted her ever finding out anything to do with it at all." Chris said, and Isaac looked at him nervously as the older man seemed lost in his own thoughts, and Isaac bit his lip, he shouldn't have brought the kids here, he knew Chris wasn't ready for this kind of thing, he was so horrible for doing this to him, he should…

"But…if she'd had nothing to do with it, nothing to do with the supernatural, then…then I'd have been denying everyone else all the good she did them. If Allison wasn't a hunter like me then…" Chris mused, and Isaac sniffed a little, a sad watery smile on his face as he did so.

"Then I'd have been dead. Lydia would have been dead. Hell, if she hadn't discovered about silver hurting the Oni, we'd all have been dead. She…" Isaac said, feeling his throat constrict, and Chris gave him a gruff, proud smile, tears in his own eyes, "she saved us all. She was a hero."

The two of them stood staring at each other for a second before Chris embraced his young (what was he? Surrogate son, sharing custody with Melissa? Foster brother? No that didn't fit, no, son fitted a bit better he thought) whatever he was in a tight hug, both of them trying to get their grief back under control.

"Damn right she was. You're all so young…and you're right, Mason was too young. Allison was too young. And…well if at the very least I can help those kids out there make sure they never go through the same terror they just felt, or can at least protect themselves better from it, then they deserve that at least. Alright. I don't particularly like it, but I more don't like the fact that it's actually necessary than anything else. I'll teach them a few tricks." He said with a small smile, and Isaac sighed in relief, at least knowing how to defend themselves, they might, in some small way, be able to prevent a tragedy like Mason, like Allison, happening all over again.

"You don't have to if you're not, you know, comfortable. If you're not…" Isaac ventured nervously, and Chris raised an eyebrow with a slight smile on his face.

"Ready? I'm not going to pretend Isaac, I've not got much going for me. Don't look so worried," he assured his young surrogate son who was looking at him in terrified alarm, "I'm not going to do anything you know, rash, even with the Nemeton corrupted as it is. I lost my wife and my daughter in the space of a few months. My father is a twisted, geriatric, Machiavellian psychopath and my sister was little better. I've lost essentially my whole family in the course of a year." He mused darkly, and Isaac reached out and squeezed Chris' shoulder anxiously, and Chris smiled ruefully, gently removing Isaac's hand from his shoulder.

"I can't…" Isaac began, but Chris waved him off, making Isaac go silent.

"I've been angry at the world Isaac. I left Beacon Hills to kill, to lash out, to cause pain, plain and simple. But when you called, told me about the dogs, told me what was happening it was like, like something had woken back up in me. I remember who I am, what I am.

I'm a hunter Isaac. I hunt supernatural creatures that are a threat, that are dangerous. And not to sound immodest, but I'm a pretty damn good one. I was out, storming and raging at the world, killing things to try and stop hurting so much. But when you called, I remembered Allison, and the good we could do together, the good we would have been able to do together. It was her you know, who decided on our new code: 'nous protegeons ceux qui ne peuvent pas se proteger eux-memes', we protect those who cannot protect themselves.

But when you called, I remember the promise I made to Allison. She wanted me to look out for all of you, to protect all of you, she told me before she headed off to try to rescue Lydia, just in case, like we always did before a battle." He recounted, and Isaac looked at him sadly, even then she was trying to protect them, just in case anything else happened…which of course, it had, breaking them all in a way that would never really be repaired, and obviously destroying her father, leaving him with nothing left to cling on to, "and she wanted me to look after you all, after the pack, after Scott…and after you. Despite the fact that the two of you couldn't be together," he told Isaac, who looked down at his shoes, feeling awful, but he then felt Chris' hands on his shoulders, and he looked up to see Chris giving him a slight grin, "to my not so great relief," he teased, getting a small smile out of Isaac despite himself, "she wanted me to look out for you in particular, said you got slammed around a lot, which she may have contributed to," he admitted fairly, and Isaac smiled a little, yeah, she had, he'd half expected round two when he'd told her he couldn't be with her since he was with Scott, "she wanted me to look out for you. And when I got your call, telling me about what fresh hell was in town now, you reminded me of who I am, and of the father I was to my daughter.

You brought me back Isaac, you all did. And I will help you all do whatever needs to be done. I have a new code: 'I protect those who protect those who cannot protect themselves'. And I'm happy to be here and to do it. And naturally, offer support if Scott ever breaks your heart again!" he finished brightly, and Isaac laughed, and wrapped the older man in a hug.

How had the two of them become so close? Isaac was very close with Melissa, but he'd also become very close with Chris, it was almost like…having a decent father.

"Thanks. I'm glad you're back, but don't take this the wrong way but…I'm glad I didn't go to France with you. I might not have wanted to come back." Isaac admitted, and Chris smiled, clapping his shoulder.

"I think you would have. You may have came for a while, but I highly doubt you'd let me come home without you if you thought Scott and the others were in trouble. And if you reunited with him, I'd never get you away from him." He teased, and Isaac grinned ruefully.

"You might be right. Are you sure you're ok with this?" he asked, and Chris looked musingly out at the two kids standing looking around his sitting room curiously

"Yeah…yeah I think so. And you're right, we've lost too much, you've all lost too much as it is. And at the moment, Scott could use all the help he can get, and if that includes those kids, and anyone else, then I'll teach them. So, who do we have here?" he asked, sweeping into the sitting room, a grinning Isaac on his heels, thinking, hoping, that Chris may actually one day be alright, or at least as alright as he could ever hope to be.

He had provisionally agreed to train Liam and Garrett on how to defend themselves in order to make sure the two youngest members of the pack, who, like Mason, were completely human, were not as much of an easy target for Agravaine and his ilk. Violet had joined them on the second day, and ever since Chris had taken them to task, though admittedly had been forced to allow them out into the field much sooner than he would have liked due to the Pombero seizing control of Eichen.

They were making good progress, and all three of them were able to identify the basic weapons of the hunters' trade. He'd also started teaching the basic combat moves, to defend themselves (which was something Violet in particular seemed most excited about bless her, and had demonstrated her handiness with her knuckle dusters in a practice bout with Chris, who was impressed with her spunk) whereas Garrett was most interested in learning about the weapons. He'd made a small mental note to keep an eye on the lad, after all, he seemed a little too eager to see all the guns, the same sort of eagerness that Aiden developed when he was allowed to play with fire, but he supposed in the long run, that was Scott's problem not his. Liam was different however. While he too was a good student, he seemed less interested in the combat and weapons, and more in being able to protect himself and help the others. Argent amused himself for a while considering just how like Scott he actually was.

He had tied the three of them to a chair, with their permission admittedly, to see how well they would do at the same test all neophyte hunters had to face, and he had been sitting watching them all, timing them to see how they were doing.

And finally, there was movement.

Liam, to Chris' great delight, finally started making a move. He had been watching the youngest member of the pack for quite some time, the one he was most interested to see, and now his patience had been rewarded. Liam had been experimentally moving his shoulders and arms all this time, and with a roar of frustration, threw himself backwards, the chair slamming to the ground. Liam then kept bashing at it, and with a great splintering of wood, the chair disintegrated under his furious assault, unable to cope with him trying to break free of his own accord, and with the chair broken into pieces, he leapt to his feet, his bindings coming undone, and he ripped the bag off his head, his face angry but when he saw Chris grinning proudly, he smiled a little and started to calm down.

Garrett took only a little bit longer as Liam headed over to sit with Chris, having been instructed to do so before hand. Garrett had been fiddling around for a while, appearing to make no progress, which Chris had to admit disappointed him slightly, of the three young kids, Garrett he felt was the one with the most potential to be a hunter. However, not long after Liam had joined Chris, Garrett somehow inexplicably stood up, dropping the bindings to his chair and grinning at Chris, who looked a bit perplexed about as to how he'd managed it though it was clear Liam knew as he had stuffed his hand into his mouth to stop him laughing at the bewildered expression on the hunter's face.

Violet was the last, however she wasn't quite as bewildering. She had been the most still out of the three, though clearly had some method of escape up her sleeve, most likely quite literally as when she finally stood up, her restraints were cut through and she happily skipped over to join the boys.

"Well done, not bad at all. Not as quick as me, or as Allison, but not far off her though, can't deny. Violet, how did you get out of there?" Chris asked, and she smirked, revealing a hidden metallic nail file that she must have had hidden about her person, and its small size and coarse nature had naturally helped her.

"Just because I'm a tomboy doesn't mean I don't do some girly stuff, Lydia gave me this one, figured it fit my aesthetic!" she said brightly, and Chris chuckled, truth be told, it looked a little like Isaac's ring daggers just without the ring at the end and in miniature.

"Very clever. Liam you obviously used your strength, same way I did when I first did it," he told him proudly, and Liam grinned a little, going a little red as he did so, "and that's good, but it might be an idea to learn other ways than brute force effective though it can be at times. And Garrett…ok how did you get out?" he asked, he still hadn't figured it out, and Garrett gave him a cocky grin.

"I'm double jointed. It only takes so long because it takes me a while to remember how to get everything to go the right way again, and hurts like a bitch when I do it, but yeah, it's easy once I get the hang of it." He told him brightly, and Chris nodded proudly, they had all done proudly.

"Interesting lesson I see." A voice came from the lift as Melissa, Camden and Rakaisha stepped out of it, Melissa's eyes sweeping the room and shooting an annoyed look at Chris, who shrugged, after all, she agreed the kids had lost too much, and if teaching them this stuff meant the kids didn't have to attend another funeral, so much the better.

"Yeah, we got ourselves out of being tied up in a chair!" Liam told her brightly, and the happy expression on his face disappeared suddenly as she fixed him with a cold look, and she again glowered at Chris.

"They're not getting hurt Melissa, in fact, it's why I agreed to teach them when Isaac brought them to me," he explained, and trying to suppress a smirk as Camden winked at him, as he knew as well as Chris did that by name dropping Isaac she would simmer down, "to make sure they don't lose anyone else, they've lost enough. We all have."

Melissa looked at him sadly, and sighed reluctantly before nodding.

"I know, you're right. Are you kids alright?" she asked kindly, and Garrett picked up one of the cattle prods that Argent had given them for the attack on Eichen.

"We will be." He warned dangerously, and she nodded, though did still look unsettled, prompting Chris to look at Camden and Rakaisha.

"To what do we owe the pleasure?" he asked, and Camden grinned.

"Well, we think we have an idea of how to bring down Ifrit. Only thing is, Kaisha, Melissa and I can't bring him down alone. We were hoping you might want to lend a hand, you and the other hunters." He asked, and Chris looked at them curiously.

"A plan you say? So you have a silver blade? Dipped in lamb's blood?" he asked, and Camden and Rakaisha both looked at him nervously while Melissa looked at him in shock.

"Wait, what?" she demanded weakly, and Violet quickly grabbed her elbow before she flopped to the floor, and Chris sent her a pitying grin.

"There are lots of creatures in the world Melissa, and a lot of them don't die just because we want them to. A silver blade dipped in lamb's blood is a surefire way to kill a djinn, but from what you've said about him Ifrit doesn't sound the sort to let us get close enough to do that. What's your plan?" he asked, and despite their momentary hesitation as Chris explained how to kill a djinn (Camden was now silently vowing that the two of them would never eat lamb anything to be on the safe side) and Rakaisha grinned a little, getting her confidence back.

"Well, the thing is Ifrit thinks he's only after me and Camden. If we can lure him into a trap with a little help from our friends, we might just be able to overcome him. See!" she said brightly, bringing a piece of paper from her pocket, which Chris looked at musingly, and Melissa, seeming to recover the use of her faculties, also joined him.

"Um, why does this map look like the sheriff station?" she asked worriedly, and Camden looked at her nervously.

"Well see, we figured that would be the best place to ambush him. We need to lure him into a trap, anywhere else and he'll have the advantage, doing it this way means we can control the battlefield." He told her, and she nodded, though wasn't entirely thrilled with the idea of luring a murderous arsonist djinn into her boyfriend's place of work.

Chris looked over the plans, musing to himself. The plan they had outlined could work, he was to be there mainly for numbers and also extra firepower and knowledge, but he believed with a little editing, they might just be able to bring Ifrit down.

Djinns were extremely powerful and dangerous beings, and able to use hallucinations as a means of defence, combined with their considerable strength and pyrokinetic abilities. The fact that Ifrit (like every other nutcase supernatural creature that came to this town) was also a bit of a sociopath was more of a hindrance to a good, old fashioned hunt but they'd dealt with murderous monsters before. What happened to the good old days when the monsters just killed because they had no control, instead of enjoying it? No one had any standards anymore, he lamented to himself.

Yes, if they drew him into the station, specifically into the cells, then they could indeed ambush him, potentially overwhelming him, so him, Camden and Rakaisha, combined with Gareth and Natasha, perhaps the sheriff too, would be enough to bring him down with a bit of forward planning and a little luck.

"What do I do?" Melissa asked curiously, and Chris looked at her sceptically.

"I assume you're there for medical support. I get wanting to get back at him for what he did to your house Melissa, but this…well…" he began hesitantly, wincing a little as her eyes flashed.

"Oh really?" she asked pointedly, and she turned her back on him and swept over to where some of his guns were stored.

She then withdrew a pistol, similar to those used by the police, and a shotgun, and laid them on the table. With everyone else watching her with rapt attention, they all observed her as she dismantled, cleaned, reloaded and expertly rebuilt the guns in record time, smiling smugly as their mouths all dropped in astonishment as she cocked each of the two weapons she had dismantled and levelled them at her audience, which stood there, aghast, their mouths hanging open.

"What the…?" Chris spluttered, this, this changed everything, he'd never have gone after Scott if he'd known his mother could dismantle and rebuild weapons as fast as that!

"Am I the only one kind of turned on by that little display?" Violet asked in shock, and Liam went red and Garrett fidgeted a little, as Camden let out a low appreciative whistle.

Chris made no such movements to indicate these things, but no, she was not the only one turned on, not at all. It was odd but yes, he too had found that rather…hot.

"Where did you learn to do that?" he demanded weakly, and she winked at him.

"Well, my mom was the county sheriff for decades. As soon as I was old enough she taught me how to use guns to defend myself. I don't like using them, or having them in the house, but it doesn't mean I can't. And besides, this damn Djinn has caused enough damage and the pack needs a win, especially after…you know," she lamented sadly, "and if you guys are going to bring him down, I'm coming too. It's been a while since I actually fired a gun, but I'm sure that since you're teaching the kids, you can also give me a refresher course right?" she asked, arcing her eyebrow, and Chris nodded weakly, a delighted smile appearing on his face.

"Um, of course! But if you can…?" he asked curiously, and she grinned, leaning against the table she was standing beside.

"If I can fire a gun why did I never show Scott how to do it? Mom and I debated it a lot, but one, he doesn't like killing and never wants to kill, he's too much of a pacifist, and then he became a werewolf and all anyway. And besides, after the unfortunate cowboys and Indians incident, we decided it probably wasn't the best decision we could ever make." She admitted, and Rakaisha, grinning as she went to stand beside her friend, looked at her excitedly.

"The cowboys and Indians incident?" she asked hopefully, and Melissa grinned.

"A story for another day, one I think we're all happier you not knowing. So, what do you say?" she asked, and Chris grinned as he got to his feet.

"Alright, if we're doing this, we're doing it right. I'll call the others." He said, reaching into his pocket for his phone.

"What can we do to help?" Garrett asked, and Camden shook his head adamantly.

"Oh no, you guys aren't coming, no way." He told them in no uncertain terms, and both he and Violet protested in a din, though Liam looked privately relieved in all honesty.

"But we're training to help you guys, we care about the pack too, about all you guys!" Violet protested, and Rakaisha shook her head too, though did look sympathetically at the younger girl.

"We know you do Violet. But this is dangerous, Ifrit is extremely dangerous. We need Argent's help, and as Melissa just showed us, she's capable of looking after herself too. You guys have only just started training with Chris, and besides, the pack needs a win. If we can take out Ifrit, we can give them a little breathing room. Go, help Scott, and stay out of trouble. And once we've dealt with Ifrit, we'll be able to join together and bring Agravaine down. But you guys need to stay out of this. Ok? Promise me!" she insisted, and Violet and Garrett exchanged a mutinous look.

"We helped at Eichen!" Garrett protested, and Chris nodded grimly, clapping the boy on the shoulder.

"Yes you did, and I wasn't too happy about taking you there either, you're too new to all this, that's why I made sure you were safe with Garrett, and I knew no matter what I said you'd come anyway. But this time, you're staying out of it, go and help Scott, with Stiles going…rogue, he needs all the friends he can get. But, as a compromise!" he said loudly, trying to cut off another burst of subversive mutterings from Garrett and Violet, "I will give you a lesson on guns, as Melissa needs a refresher anyway. Agreed?" he asked, and Liam nodded earnestly, though unlike the other two he looked a little less than excited to be dealing with guns, it seemed as though he preferred the more non-lethal methods he had at his disposal.

"So you're in?" Camden asked hopefully, and he nodded, clapping the younger man on the shoulder, as Garrett and Violet continued to look subversive behind his back.

"Yeah I'm in. Let's bring this evil Djinn down, god knows we could use a win right now." He told them tiredly, and Melissa and Rakaisha exchanged a dark grin.

This time, Ifrit was going down.

XX

Stiles looked at the scene that filled the steel mill that Agravaine had made his lair in horror. It seemed that while the pack had been reeling from the death of Mason, the Gwyllgi had been busy, and had been creating revenants hard and fast. There were now dozens of them, but with the amount of deaths in the town either due to murders, accidents, suicides, or just nature itself, there were now more than enough to outnumber the pack considerably. It was just one small victory that Mason hadn't been taken and made into one yet.

So now the lunatic had dozens of revenants and it looked as though this lot were about to cause even more chaos and add to that number. Add that to the three former friends of theirs who were the leaders of the revenants, all three of whom were glaring at Stiles, that meant the pack was in serious trouble. Furthermore, there were now dozens of whists, and he knew that the pack had made some progress in cutting down the number of them so it seemed as though he wasn't just waiting for Hollis to kill dogs now, and was in fact doing it himself.

In short, Agravaine was building an army, and would use that army to either force the confrontation with Scott or kill him and the rest of the pack if he didn't get his way. And it seemed as though the Ghost Pack had finally run out of patience and that they were moving towards the endgame, which left Stiles with only one question:

How the hell did he go through with his original plan and stop them?

"Go, go and cause chaos, pain, death. The stubborn little brat will learn, one way or another, that one does not simply refuse the Corrupter. Teach the little brat a lesson he'll never forget!" Agravaine thundered, fire and smog billowing from his mouth as he stormed in rage, and with this command, the assembled undead army left the steel mill, ready to go and cause chaos.

Stiles had to do something. If he let all of them get loose on the town without trying in any way to stop them, it would be more blood on his hands. But how the hell did he alert the pack, his father? The pack would never believe him, and contacting them could risk his cover, and with the mood Agravaine was in, that would likely be fatal. And his father would need the support of the pack, how the hell had he gotten himself into this mess?

He should have told Scott regardless of Ifrit's attack, but he'd been messed up, and Scott had had far too much on his plate without worrying about his best friend…well, now his former best friend, the look on Scott's face as Agravaine had revealed his treachery had broken Stiles heart, he should have tried to warn him, should have told him long before now, but he'd backed himself into an impossible corner.

Did Scott hate him? How much damage had he done to his best friend, hell could he ever consider himself Scott's best friend again? He probably thought that it was his fault instead of it being Stiles decision, it was probably ripping Scott apart. God he hoped that Isaac found the note he slipped in his pocket, mind you even if he did find it there was no guarantee that he would even tell Scott of what he had found, after all, Scott had hurt his boyfriend, he was bound to be extra pissed.

And the pack would have told his father about his so called 'defection' by now, but if he let Agravaine's forces run riot across town, any deaths would be due to him. What the hell did he do?

Admittedly the dogs hadn't been watching him as closely since his treachery had been exposed to the pack, figuring, rightly he supposed, that he had nowhere else to go. But still, as soon as he did anything, hell as soon as he moved one of them, usually Malakai, was following his every move. There was no way he could get away to let his friends know what was coming, no way at all to get around the dogs. Unless he could trick them…

Stiles allowed himself a small smirk. After all, this whole thing he was doing, utilising the Nogitsune within him, making the most of the aftermath of his possession, infiltrating Agravaine's ranks, it was all one big trick, and he'd gotten rather good at them.

"Where are you going?" Malakai shot at him as he crossed the room, and Stiles shot him a dirty look, honestly, he was so obsessive, and he was constantly harassing Stiles as though he was afraid that simply by being here, Stiles would stop him being Agravaine's favourite boy.

"Well I'm going to go and call Scott, Malakai, you happy? I'm going to tell the guy I just betrayed that he sucks as an Alpha. I'm going to the toilet where do you think I'm going?" he asked irritably, what he was saying about Scott turning to ash in his mouth, and Malakai grinned.

"Ok, fine, sure, I get the picture, got to keep yourself company somehow I guess since you betrayed everyone who ever cared about you." He taunted, and Stiles rolled his eyes before leaving the room, confident that he had removed Malakai from following him for the moment.

The damn gytrash was right though, he had betrayed everyone who had ever cared about him, and when all this was over…what the hell would they do to him? Would they believe that this was the only way to help, the only way to stop the Nogitsune overcoming him, the only way to save his father, and the only way to try and help Scott defeat the sheer volume of enemies they were currently dealing with?

That was a problem for later. For now, he had a town to help save.

Heading into the toilet, he dialled the number for the police station. He couldn't stay on the phone for too long in case they tracked the call, and hence either his father or the pack walked into a trap, but an anonymous tip might just be enough to help turn the tide.

He pressed the call button, his heart hammering in his chest, desperate for any signs that he was about to be found out, just as he heard the Berserkers give a war cry and head out to do Agravaine's bidding.

XX

Ricard looked out in approval as the remaining members of the Calavera clan. Under Kate's supervision and advise, they had made considerable progress and they were now armed to the teeth and ready and raring to take the fight to the wolf pack and the dog pack.

However, he had to worry about the frequent absence of Kate. There was something off about her. While he was relieved that she had supported him in taking over the broken remnants of the clan following the deaths of Araya and Severo, he didn't quite understand what she sought to gain by helping him. And there was still something about her, the whole thing that was going on here just didn't fit, none of it did.

The hair on the back of his neck suddenly started to prickle, and he seized the shotgun he had been cleaning while he sat here in the office overlooking his comrades, and he turned, levelling the shotgun at a swirling column of purple smoke, backing away slightly as he did so, and the purple smoke materialised into a man, clad in dark robes and marked with glowing tattoos.

This man was a djinn.

"Greetings. Peace, I won't attack if you don't." the djinn said, raising his hand to ward off any potential attack and Ricard looked at him suspiciously.

"A Djinn? What are you doing here, and why wouldn't I attack you?" Ricard demanded suspiciously, keeping his gun pointed at the newcomer, and Ifrit allowed himself a small smile.

"Well, for two reasons. Firstly, because I would kill you before you'd even finished firing the bullet and I would then proceed to slaughter all that is left of your clan. Secondly, as I'm here to do you a favour. You see, I have a plan to force my prey into a trap, however I lack the manpower I need in order to effectively attract their attention, those damn dogs plaguing the town cause more trouble than they're worth quite honestly. By helping me, I would be removing one of the more dangerous opponents you're likely to encounter whilst here in the town." He explained, striding across to the table and looking at the various weapons that the clan had assembled in order to wage their war upon the town.

"Really, like who?" Ricard asked suspiciously, and Ifrit allowed himself a smile as he turned to face the foremost of the clan.

"There is another djinn here, the one I've been sent here to get. And as she's involved with the American scum brother of the Prime Beta of the local pack, you assist me in removing her and her Western man, he is devastated which leaves the local pack even weaker than it currently is. With my help, you may even be able to finally finish them off, from what I understand they're hanging on by a thread anyway." He explained, sitting down at the desk where Ricard had been cleaning his guns, and the hunter looked at the Djinn curiously.

Djinns were notoriously difficult to kill, and they were also tricksters. And considering the number of glowing tattoos this one had, he was clearly quite an old one, and hence, extremely dangerous. But why on earth would a Djinn want their help, surely if he was as strong as Ricard suspected he would be able to deal with his prey himself, unless he truly did just need extra manpower to help drive his advantage home.

"Why help us?" Ricard shot at Ifrit, who allowed himself a small, self-satisfied smile.

"As I said, I need extra pairs of hands, which you and your friends can provide, and I'm sadly unable to call more Djinns to the hunt, though many would delight in joining me in hunting down the renegade I've been sent here to kill. And quite honestly, as hunters who are becoming increasingly competent and hence a potential threat to my plans, I would rather keep an eye on you. Once the deed is done, the pack will be further weakened and you lot can continue to amuse yourselves in whatever foul depraved way you see fit, all I need is a little help and I'll be on my way. So, your decision?" Ifrit asked, turning back to look at Ricard expectantly, and the leader of the Calaveras looked at him uncertainly.

He was a Djinn, and they were notorious tricksters and extremely dangerous prey. This one in particular seemed to be an elder one, hence his number of glowing tattoos present on his body. However, at the end of the day, for a little bit of help, the Djinn would be taking down another Djinn, and this one had to be involved somehow with the pack of the True Alpha. If they were taken down, it would certainly leave the pack even weaker than they already were, and they could then push the advantage against the pack, and as the Djinn said, certain members of the pack would be heartbroken if he succeeded, further advancing his case.

The Calaveras had suffered enough. Under Ricard's leadership the remaining number had revitalised and reinvented themselves, and if they intended to truly re-establish themselves as the preeminent hunter force on the continent, killing the pack of the True Alpha, which included the man who had murdered Araya and Severo, would go a long way to helping them accomplish that. But did he dare work with a Djinn? After all he was already forcing his clan to work with Kate, and there was still something off about her which he couldn't quite put his finger on, and chances were the Djinn would be much more treacherous than she could ever hope to be. But did he risk working with this Djinn? His clan wouldn't be happy if he did, but if it allowed them to get closer to avenging Araya then perhaps they would accept the alliance, and from what the Djinn was saying it was only a one time thing. But could he trust him?

"Come my friend, I am waiting, and I don't like to be kept waiting." Ifrit said dangerously, and Ricard was about to respond to delay him while he thought a bit more when the door to the office that he had taken for his own opened and revealed Kate Argent.

"Ricard, glad to see your boys are getting on, so how about we…the Djinn." Kate stated as she entered the office, her last words becoming a purr as she noticed Ifrit, who allowed himself a small smirk as he looked at her.

"Ah, the Bone Woman I believe. A Nagual, here in this forsaken place." He said appraisingly, the small smile on his face becoming all the wider as she suddenly froze, her face going white as his words set in.

Ricard cocked his head curiously. The Bone Woman was a local legend, the name of the master of the Berserkers from the town near to where the Calaveras made their home. And a Nagual was a type of werejaguar, similar to a wolf, but not quite. But wait a minute, if she was a Nagual, then that meant that she was a shapeshifter, and not just that but she was one who could easily be mistaken or misidentified as…

"La Loba!" Ricard breathed in realisation, and Kate hissed through her teeth, backing away from Ricard.

Oh shit. The Calaveras, the Elmer Fudds of the hunting world, the biggest clan of idiots to ever crawl out of the cesspool, were by and large a simple lot, and with her having killed both Araya and Severo, that was meant to have taken out the more intelligent end of the gene pool. It was just her luck that the Djinn had identified her as La Loba, hell, even identifying her as a Nagual was enough to turn the Calaveras against her, which meant this was meant to get very ugly.

"Ricard, you need to let me explain…" she insisted, and Ricard sneered as he levelled his gun at her.

"Explain? Well explain this jaguar," he spat angrily, "how is it you know what's been going on with us? How did you know to come and help? How is it you survived your run-in with an insane Alpha? And how is it that you seem to know so much about us? And while you're at it, maybe you explain why there are Berserkers in town, the Aztecas, which are known to only be in the town nearest ours, a town where one of our clan was killed by a she-wolf?" he spat, and Ifrit chuckled slightly, and Kate continued to back away from the door.

Typical, just her luck, she had chosen Ricard to take control of the remaining Calaveras mainly because he was the smartest of the remaining members. But now, that cleverness of his was being used against her, see, she had told her father that using the Calaveras was a bad idea!

"Ricard, you need to let me explain, how do you think I got you all the weapons? I might be a shapeshifter now, through no fault of my own I might add," she told him, well, that wasn't strictly true, you know, the Hale house fire, nasty aspersions, all that but it was true enough, "but I'm on your side, I helped you!" she told him, and Ricard glowered at her.

"Yet all the others mysteriously died or disappeared just around the time you started showing up, what should I make of that do you reckon? You lied to me, thinking you could manipulate me! You're La Loba, you're the one Araya had us looking for…a rogue hunter she told us, someone who had broken the code. Now, now it all makes sense.

You ran from Beacon Hills, trying to get away, but got too close to our territory. One of us caught you and you killed him, and you fled into La Iglesia to escape, and there you found the Berserkers. But, as you're a jaguar, not a wolf like we thought, you were able to take control of the Berserkers, see, the Nagual and the Berserkers are linked on some weird level no one understands. And with the Berserkers in hand, you came back here, and I'm willing to bet…it was you who killed Araya!" he thundered, and Kate knew she was screwed.

She was also quite impressed with his deduction, he had figured the whole thing out. She had fled, knowing that if her brother and her sister in law had discovered that she wasn't dead like everyone had thought, they'd have hunted her down, and quite honestly, she didn't trust her father not to either. So she had fled, and yes, had managed to accidentally wind up in the Calaveras territory and was forced on the run. The hunter she had killed had found her on the full moon, had discovered her in her true form, unable to control her transformation, and she had ripped his throat out. Recognising his clan from the skull etched into the bullet in his gun (showing that he'd barely graduated) she knew the Calaveras would be searching all over the desert for her, and she had made good her escape, and had stumbled upon La Iglesia.

She'd heard the tales of La Iglesia, of how even the Calaveras avoided it (even their stupidity didn't extend that far, even if their numbers did) and figured that the taboo of the place would keep them away from her for the night. She had sought refuge in the church, also knowing that Araya's god-fearing nature would also help to keep her out.

But upon entering the church, she had felt…something, drawing her in, leading her deeper and deeper into the annals of the town, the underground tunnels beneath the ruins of the abandoned hamlet. And it was there, deep in the catacombs of the Temple of Tezcatlipoca that she had discovered the Berserkers. Originally horrified by their presence, fearing they would kill her, instead they had taken her by the arm (she had struggled) and brought her to the altar room of the temple, and after showing her the table that they had once used to indoctrinate more into their ranks, she discovered that she could communicate with them, and furthermore, they wanted to obey her, as they called her the Bone Woman, and told her of the connection to their god Tezcatlipoca, and how they wished to work with her to further their gods aims. Initially bemused, she had then received their help in controlling her transformation at the full moon, learned about their culture, and even better, the sheer number of them present in the town, and weeks later, having fully evolved into her role as the leader of the Berserkers, she emerged from La Iglesia, her plan fully formed, ready to hunt down her father, who had initially tipped Araya off about her potential survival, and preparing to finally bring down that adorable little brown eyed werewolf who had destroyed her family, the much vaunted Scott McCall.

And it was then that one of Araya's scouts had spotted her, beginning the chase all over again, and Araya and Severo had come after her themselves, to their detriment, and she had gotten her father to call off the search from his other hunter friends as well after she had killed them, and the two of them had been working together, with her keeping an eye on the remaining Calaveras…and now it was that which was going to get her killed all over again.

And that, frankly, she thought with a smirk, just wasn't going to happen.

"Oh alright fine, yes, I killed Araya, and Severo. But now look Ricard, you're in charge of the entire clan, I can help you, just think about this! A Djinn, you know as well as I do that they're treacherous, come on, I can deliver you the entire pack!" she promised, it was her last desperate gamble, and she looked at Ricard, who did look as though he was considering her words.

And a second later he fired his shotgun, the bullet punching through her hip, and she roared in pain, returning to her werejaguar form as she did so, her face turning blue with dark spots, her eyes glowing green as she did so. She snarled as Ricard shot at her again, and this time the bullet punched through her stomach, the hunter bearing down on her. No, she had come too far, done too much, she wasn't going to be killed by a hunter, least of all the Calaveras.

She roared, slashing towards Ricard with her savage claws, the hunter backpedalling in order to get away from her. Ifrit favoured her with a cocky grin before she turned and leapt through the office window with a roar, sending shattered glass cascading down onto the rest of the Calaveras who were downstairs, fine tuning their weapons, preparing for their next move.

Ricard ran to the window as a wounded but still highly dangerous Nagual sprang down amidst the remaining fifteen or so Calaveras, who all hastened to grab their weapons as they saw Kate in her true form, and she roared in challenge as Ricard readied his weapon above her.

"She lied to us, she killed Araya! Kill her!" he bellowed, and the other Calaveras then opened fire, as the air filled with the sound of machine gun fire, gunshots and shotgun rounds as they attempted to kill the one who had killed their leader, manipulated them into becoming her private militia, and was trying to use them to fight her war for her.

Kate moved like the big cat she was, snarling furiously as she went full Nagual, pouncing away from a shotgun round aimed at her head, springing toward a more seasoned member of the clan aiming his shotgun at her. She was on him in seconds, snarling furiously as her ragged claws ripped into his throat. As he gurgled and collapsed onto the ground, the firing at her eased up just a touch, and she spiralled through the air, her claws ripping the faces of another two Calaveras asunder, both screaming in pain as she did so. However Ricard fired another round, this one catching her in the shoulder, and she snarled in furious pain as it lodged within her. Stumbling, one hunter moved to try and hit her with a cattle prod, but she sprang away from him, kicking him in the chin as she did, and took stock of the situation. She had taken down one of them, but she was still vastly outnumbered and outgunned, and was wounded to boot, so despite how much it would gall her having to run from the Calaveras, she really didn't have a choice in the matter, she had to escape.

But she would make them pay dearly for this on the way out.

The two she had slashed were still lying writhing on the ground in pain as bullets of all sorts were loosed at her. Kate roared in challenge, pouncing through the air, catching one of the few remaining women in the pack in the stomach, and plunged her claws into her neck as she fell. The Calaveras gave an outraged yell and pressed towards her, firing their guns, but with a dismissive look she fled towards the door, barely avoiding several bullets being lodged within her body as she made good her escape. Another man came at her, his cattle prod swinging down for her, but with her feline reflexes, she dodged out the way before turning full circle, digging her claws into her assailant's skull, and the man was dead before he even hit the floor, his brain (well, what he had of one anyway) dripping from her claws.

Giving a thundering roar, she watched as Ricard, by far the best shot and best hunter of the lot, came hurtling down the stairs, shotgun in hand as the distracted hunters rallied around their leader. Kate made a run for it, clearing much of the room in a single, graceful leap, dancing lithely to avoid the hailstorm of bullets currently being thrown at her, before heading for the door. Reaching out towards it, she screamed as another shot from Ricard punched through her hand as she leaned on the door for a split second's rest.

Kate roared in pain, turning back to face him furiously, her blonde hair swinging around her face as he and his clanmates bore down on her. This was getting old.

Wrenching the door open she ran outside, only to now be caught in a shooting gallery by the surging Calaveras who sprayed suppressing fire all over the parking lot of the factory they made their home. Kate swore as Ricard gave commands to his companions, weapons ringing through the air, the noise like an old printing press as they fired at the one who had killed their leader, determined to put her down.

The two Calaveras on the door, guarding the entrance to their base of operations, came dashing towards her as she ran from the other hunters. Rolling her eyes in annoyance and lamenting her sudden reversal of fortune, she coiled herself like a spring before clearing the space between them in a single bound.

"NO!" Ricard yelled, as she landed on all fours in front of the two oncoming hunters, both of them stopping short in terror when they saw her glowing green eyes and that was the last thing they saw as she ripped both their throats out.

She had to go, had to run, had to get to the Berserkers, they would bring her back to full strength again like they had done before, she just had to get to them, that was all.

That would be easier without bullets being stuck inside her, but she could manage. Emerging from the factory's car park, she looked around for any form of escape, a car, a bike, anything, but there was nothing to be had.

She chanced a look back. Two of the Calaveras had broke off to check their dead, but that still left eight and Ricard bearing down on her, and she wouldn't last much longer. Looks like she had taught them a little too well. Lamenting her luck once again, and seeing no sign of an escape route, the pain now threatening to overwhelm her, she staggered onward, spotting a manhole cover that led to the sewer.

Hardly her first, or the most ideal choice, but she was wounded, laden with bullets, and it would be easy to lose them down there. Snarling in annoyance, and vowing to get back at the Calaveras for this, she ripped the manhole cover open and, taking a deep breath to stop the smell assailing her senses, she leapt into the sewers, slamming the cover shut behind her and making good her escape.

By the time Ricard and his compatriots left the parking lot, Kate had disappeared. He was a fool, a blind fool! She was the one who had murdered Araya, murdered Severo, not Derek Hale, she had manipulated and used them all, and then had most likely been the reason that Ramon and the others had all disappeared as well, she had played him, played them all, like a violin!

"She's gone." One of his hunters grumbled, and another shook her head furiously, her face the definition of ugly as her expression soured.

"And killed five more of us as she left." She spat, literally, spitting onto the ground, and Ricard shook his head grimly.

Ten of them, that was all that was left of the once mighty Calavera clan, all because of Kate Argent. When he found her, she would suffer, she would suffer in new and unimagined ways, he would make sure of that, she had to pay for what she had done to their clan.

"Gather the dead, we'll lay them to rest. And then, then we hunt Kate Argent, we hunt La Loba!" Ricard vowed, to nods and some half-hearted cheers as they all vowed revenge on the Bone Woman.

By the time Ricard got back into his office, lamenting all that had happened tonight, he saw that Ifrit had long since left. However, he had left a note, which Ricard mused was actually quite a decent thing to do for a murderous supernatural entity

'My apologies for the pain my information undoubtedly caused you. Naturally, you want revenge, so as a gesture of goodwill, I will remove the Berserkers from the equation, meaning she no longer has those monstrosities working for her, they now work for me.

Good hunting.'

So, the Djinn had seized control of the Berserkers, now Kate was truly on her own. And that meant that it would be that much easier to stick a bullet in her head.

"Get ready everyone, tonight…we hunt La Loba!"

Hello there! Apologies for the long delay in this chapter, the last few months have been a bit stressful.
I was fighting to keep my job (which I have, I'm staying where I belong on my counter, and am back with my best friend, so in that regard I am once again zen), Christmas and New Year obviously got in the way, yet another bloody covid lockdown because our government is so incompetent and is doing everything a year too late, I fell a few days into the New Year as the council didnt grit the pavements and I went down on the ice and knackered my back (I was rescued by a passing ambulance, its mostly fine now) and on top of that I lost my grandad just before Christmas

Furthermore, I kind of got a little stuck a bit in the middle, but finally, here we are

The whole episode is being uploaded, I'll put up the last of my personal notes at the end of the last section of the chapter but please, if you enjoy, please and review, I find thats a good help for motivation