Disclaimer: teen wolf does not belong to me in any way, shape or form :( I have so much inspiration lately so I'm sorry the chapters are rolling out and may be hard to keep up with, but my muse is working so much overtime haha and thanks for your continued support, and a massive shoutout to guest, Odie.18, Linda96 and Jesscc98 for reviewing, I love you all so much xxx
P.s) the teen wolf timeline is confusing asf isn't it? I'm just roughly doing the dates :)
"... I really think I should take you to the hospital" the woman murmured quietly, her brown hair gently feathering across her face with the small gusts of wind, "you might've hit your head..."
'Nope - just come back to life' she thought sarcastically, her brain working overtime as she tried to figure out what to do, where to go, what was happening-
"What's your name?" The woman asked kindly, her eyes brimming with concern and sympathy, "you look like you've been to hell and back"
Kayla resisted snorting, somehow finding it kind of funny because - oh wow - the irony, and shook her head.
"I don't need a hospital" she declared, "what I need is to get out of here"
She grabbed the woman's keys from her hands, pushing her towards the passenger side of her SUV, "get in"
The woman spluttered, shocked and lost for words as Kayla jumped into the drivers side and started up the engine, cocking a brow across at her.
"Well? Are you getting in or not?"
The sound of a gun shot spurred the woman forward, scrambling into the passenger seat and ducking, her hands covering her head in fear
"Oh my god" she screeched, "who is after you?"
"No one pleasant" was Kayla's reaction as she revved the engine and skidded off as fast as the car would allow, leaving some very prominent tyre burn marks etched into the tarmac, her blurry vision not helping matters as she tried to focus on the bendy narrow road, the only light to guide her way was the silver glow of the moon from above, peaking out through the heavy clouds.
More gun shots sounded, hitting off the metal exterior of the car as the woman screeched again, trying her best to drop to the floor of the car as Kayla flinched, ducking as low as she could go to avoid being hit.
Everything was happening so fast she didn't really have time to wrap her head around things, let alone understand why she seemed... okay. No stutter, no brain fog, no weakness in her body. It was like all of that disappeared and she was Kayla again. Kayla without a brain injury. Kayla without all the bad side effects of multiple antipsychotic medication. Kayla without the trauma taking over her life.
... As if it never really happened.
Or at least, hadn't happened in this version of reality.
She swung the car around the corner violently, nearly tail end spinning it as she caught the wheel to stabilise it but too late she realised there were spikes across the road, aiming to trap her.
She tried to brake, to avoid messing up the tyres and her only way out of here, but it was too late and the car glided over the spikes and what followed was a ear splitting bang of multiple tyres puncturing and the screeching scrape of metal wheels against the tarmac.
She internally cursed, unable to control the car as it spun around multiple times, shaking her body like a rag doll from side to side, hitting her head off the clear glass window as the car slowed to a stop.
... Ow.
That wasn't supposed to happen.
Damn Calaveras. Always having to be one step ahead.
The woman whose car she pretty much just crashed was moaning in pain, half knocked out from the violent spinning and Kayla was just glad she had a pulse, deciding she would be safer if she just left her here. It wasn't this woman the Calavera's was after... it was her. So she could protect her by getting as far away from her as possible.
Her head was bleeding, vibrant red blood trickling down the side of her forehead as she blindly opened the car door and fell out, her knees giving way as she hit the tarmac with a sickening crunch.
No... it had to be different to last time, she couldn't end up in Mexico, she couldn't let those same events play out, it had to be different-
A sharp sting erupted in the side of her neck, immediately making her feel naseaus and woozy as she collapsed to the side in the middle of the road, Araya Calavera's haggard and stern face looking down at her as she lost consciousness, a gleam of delight shining in her cold dead eyes.
So... she ended up in Mexico.
Big surprise.
Whatever was in that dart gun was strong, enough to knock her out for what she guessed was easily 12 hours, coming around with one hell of a headache in the exact same place she was before, in some dingy dark basement with bugs and beetles scuttling across the floor. Gross. Her hands handcuffed and tied around a pipe, forcing her to one place and within arms reach was a knife - a knife they obviously wanted her to kill herself with.
"It's not happening" she shouted, tugging at the handcuffs that were dampening her power and energy, remembering the Calavera's had put something in them to keep her weak, "I didn't kill myself last time and I'm not going to this time"
No reply, as per usual.
She tugged at the handcuffs, the metal rattling against the pipe as she tried to shimmy her hands out of them but they were too tight, her skin digging into the edges and making them bleed.
"Urgh" she groaned, "great"
The only good thing about being stuck in here, alone and in her head, was she had time to organise her thoughts, trying to understand what was going on.
The gist of it was... the ritual worked. She was dragged to hell, not to stay there - no, but to be reunited with her soul, to find the strength she had lacked for a long time, to realise her self worth before her soul became whole once again. She was then thrust back to the living world, reborn with her soul intact but only in a different time. In a time she had already lived through before. Given a second chance for the things she had done by letting her not do them again. To choose differently.
And since escaping from her grave, she felt strangely... okay.
Okay physically. Okay emotionally. Hell, even okay mentally. She didn't feel like damaged goods anymore. Her brain injury must be non existent now; no damage to her cognitive abilities. Even when she thought back to everything she had been through, it still hurt like hell, but she felt able to deal with it. To manage the trauma. To control her emotions. To face the world head on.
She felt strangely capable and that was something she hadn't felt in what felt like many lifetimes.
Was it really possible that going through all that just made her stronger?
Even now, trapped in some damp, foul smelling basement with the drip of a nearby tap slowly grating on her nerves, she felt somewhat optimistic. Like a part of her knew she would get out of it because she had learnt to rely on herself in the past, to believe in herself, and that confidence was slowly but surely coming back.
She may never be the same, but she felt much more herself than ever before.
She sighed heavily, leaning her head against the rusty pipe as she shut her eyes, letting her batteries recharge.
She knew what she needed to do... she needed to get the hell out of here, to find her friends - to find Stiles - and explain what had happened. She doubted they would believe her, it was a crazy thing to even try and believe in, but she had to. She needed to figure out how such a thing was possible.
... But it wouldn't be as simple as that, would it?
To them she was dead. She was dead and buried in the place they picked for her, slowly rotting away to nothing. They were adjusting to life without her... without Allison too. It had been two months of getting their lives back on track and she was going to epically ruin that with her comeback.
She remembered briefly what it was like last time... how Stiles was so bewildered and shocked yet delighted at the same time, desperate to touch her, feel her, love her and how she had thrown it back in his face.
How would she tell him she was back?
It wasn't like she was just coming back from vacation early... she was dead. In their minds she was dead and never coming back - how could she tell them that wasn't the case?
She was sure she heard voices nearby, above the ceiling that was dripping musty water near her foot and she strained her ears, wondering if it was the Calavera's plotting their next move but no... no, those voices sounded oddly familiar, hard to make out, but familiar and she put the pieces together, trying to remember the sequence of events that followed her original time in the basement.
It was her friends - it had to be.
They came to Mexico to save Derek, that's what they did before and she was sure that's what they were doing again, so all she had to do was get their attention and they could be reunited.
She could see Stiles again...
She tugged furiously at the handcuffs, beginning to shout out but she had barely begun when the basement door slid open and in strode a buff man, looking to be in his thirties in a black wife beater vest, various dark tattoos covering his thick arms as he advanced on her, grabbing the back of her hair and pulling her head back, stiffing a filthy rag in her mouth despite her squirms, wrapping duct tape around her head to keep her mouth shut.
"Enough of that" he growled, "we don't want your friends to come in here and save you, do we?"
She glared at him, her whole body igniting with fiery rage but unlike last time she didn't have her powers. She didn't know why - maybe she was too drained, or maybe they were still repressed deep within her, it was also possible she just didn't have them anymore, she wasn't sure, but that didn't stop her eyes from flashing that bright glowing dangerous green, a warning sign to back off.
He chuckled, "calm down" patting her head like a small obedient child but she whipped her head away viciously, deathly furious sounds emitting from the back of her throat.
"Fiesty for a dead girl" he commented, "maybe you should go back to being one"
She huffed out an aggravated sound against the rag, her body nearly shaking with frustration and anger.
His eyes narrowed, pulling his hand back to slap her across the face - hard. Brutal enough to split her lip under the duct tape, blood seeping into the rag inside her mouth.
"Do us all a favour and take that god damn knife and stab yourself in the neck with it" he fumed, "otherwise you're just going to end up dying in here, no food, no water, no nothing. I know which one I would rather"
He looked familiar, his dark eyes merciless and unforgiving and she realised with a start... this was the first man she had killed in that other timeline. The one she killed as they bundled her into this basement, managing to free her hands briefly as she compelled him and then snapped his neck.
But now... he wasn't dead. He was very much alive, staring down at her with so much hatred and disgust she wanted to ask him what had gone wrong in his life to want someone he didn't even know to be dead.
Her stubbornness won out, not giving in to his intimidation so he settled on pressing his thumb against her duct tape covered lip, pressing against her split lip so it ignited in fiery pain, a loud wince of pain being muffled around the rag as she pulled her head away from him.
He stood up, kicking the blade a little closer, a bit so subtle hint at what he wanted her to do.
"Make the right choice... for everyone's sake. It's unnatural you being here. People always come back wrong"
'Not this time' she thought, unable to defend herself as he walked away, shutting and locking the metal door behind her, leaving her in darkness once again.
She groaned, pressing her forehead against the pipe and feeling her shoulders deflate in disappointment.
She just wanted to see her friends... to see Stiles... to be with them and live her life. This terrible ache spreading around her body knowing they were so close yet so far, not knowing she was just feet below them this entire time.
If she ever made it out of this one... she promised herself she would never be back to Mexico again.
"… Kate"
Stiles' panic increased tenfold at that, his eyes wide as he watched his best friend closely, not even caring there was a gun pointing at his head as he sat there, desperate to race out of his seat and check on him, make sure he was free from any injuries.
"Very good" Araya praised, "and you realised that all by yourself"
"Kate's not… she couldn't have… she's dead" Stiles exclaimed, his gaze flitting between Scott collapsing back in his wooden chair in exhaustion, sweat pouring from his body to a terrified and teary eyed Lydia before, finally, catching Kira's relieved stare, "we were at her funeral. Whoever has Derek it is certainly not Kate. We saw her body"
Araya just nodded to one of her men, the one currently pointing the gun at his head and he lowered it, giving Stiles a bit more room to breathe without fearing his brain matter was going to decorate the walls a pretty bright red, "Kate Argent did die. But she didn't stay dead"
"… Impossible" he breathed, "that can't happen"
"Peter Hale" she reminded him with a sly lift of the brow, "it's difficult but not impossible. It happens more often than what we think"
Not impossible... he froze, thinking over her words. She made it sounds like raising the dead was easy... well, manageable at the very least. So if it was, he could try. He could try and bring her back. He could move hell and high water to bring Kayla back. He would be stupid not to try, wouldn't he? Because these last two months had been unbelievably hard. He had been wearing a facade for weeks now; pretending to be okay when he wasn't. What if he did everything in his power to bring her back?
"So why does she have Derek? What does she want with him?" Lydia asked, interrupting his racing thoughts as she tugged at the rope binding her to the chair, "why kidnap him?"
"Your guess is as good as mine. But she's strong and she's back with a vengeance. That's the problem with the dead that come back-" and for some reason, the hunter's eyes fell on Stiles, almost like she knew what he was thinking, "it's wrong. It's not right"
"… Why are you looking at me like that? I've never died" despite how badly he wished he had - especially that night in the school.
"Because I know Derek was trying to find a way to bring his cousin back, did he succeed? Did he bring her back?"
Stiles flinched, just like he did every time her death got brought up, "no, no he didn't bring K-Kayla back, he's been missing for weeks. I was at her grave just two days ago... nothing has changed. It's still the same"
Unfortunately, he added. He wished it would change. That she would somehow come back to him so they could be Stiles and Kayla again because, god, how he missed her. Life just wasn't the same without her... his entire heart missing the thing that made it worth beating.
Her.
"Don't be getting any ideas in your head boy" she warned, her glare as cold as ice like she could read his thoughts - or maybe he was just that predictable, "don't mess with the dead. They are dead for a reason"
Stiles' nostrils flared, his fists clenching tightly at his sides, "oh yeah, and what reason is there for a seventeen year old girl to die, huh?" He demanded, "how is that right?"
"It's the way things are and should be" she replied, "when we die, we move on. We exist elsewhere. And that is where their souls should stay. Kayla needs to stay dead. It keeps the balance"
Stiles was furious with grief, shaking with anger as Scott tried to reach out and calm him down but he was having none of it, standing up so suddenly his chair careened backwards and hit the cement floor with a loud slam, Araya's little guard dogs raising their guns.
"Balance? Balance?" He seethed, "you have been egging me on this entire time about her, talking about her as if you knew her. What makes you think you deserve to even say her name?!"
Araya chuckled, like she was amused by his sporadic, unpredictable behaviour, "I hear things" she muttered, "and I know you, above everyone else, would do anything to keep her alive. I am simply giving you a warning. Leave her to rot, or else I'll put you in the ground next to her"
Stiles was all ready to leap forward and wrap his hands around her throat, squeezing until she either stopped breathing and passed out or he got a bullet in the brain, surprising both he was okay with in his moment of rage, but Scott - despite his exhausation and pain - stumbled to his feet and put a hand against Stiles' chest, stopping him in his tracks.
"Don't Stiles" he warned, "don't give her what she wants, remember?" He reminded him gently, "it's okay, calm down"
Stiles was furious, his breathing erratic and heavy, his heart bellowing two hundred beats a minute as Scott took the lead, his brows crinkling,
"Why are you focusing on Kayla... she's gone. She isn't a threat to anyone and no one is going to bring her back. No one knows how"
Araya looked between the group of friends, deciding they had nothing to do with the spell and the reason their friend was now awake and breathing in her basement.
If not them, then who?
Araya sighed, "I had my curiosities about her. We heard about an Encantado, a powerful creature nearly unheard of. I keep my eye on powerful creatures, Mr McCall. I do that so if anything does wrong I can hunt them down and put things back in balance"
That's why she heard about the resurrection, whispers in the night about how an encantado would be raised from the dead. She kept her ears open at all times, tuning into anything remotely suspicious and supernatural. That's why she gathered her men and hunted down her grave; finding it wrecked and open, a body having crawled through and set out to capture her because, in Araya's mind, she had to stay dead. She had to stay dead for the greater good. Coming back to life wasn't natural. It could only end in disaster.
Scott frowned, "then why-
"It's my job to make sure she stays dead" Araya interrupted, her stare moving to focus on Stiles, "in case people try and so something irrational and invoke forces and powers they know thing about to benefit their own needs"
"If I could bring her back I would, in a heartbeat" Stiles hissed, "if it was possible I would have already done it, your views be damned"
Araya smiled, "move on. There's no point loving the dead, they don't feel it"
Stiles was ready to hit something, losing his cool and about to blow so he shook Scott's hands off him and pushed past her lackies, leaving the room and barging outside to the hot humid air, too distressed to continue that conversation.
He couldn't talk about Kayla like that... not about her being dead. It was too hard, too overwhelmingly sickening to the point of destruction to even say the words 'Kayla is dead'.
He knew it in his heart of hearts, but he couldn't talk about it. Not yet. He couldn't talk about the love of his life, his soul, being gone. He couldn't because he can't imagine how he would live out the rest of his life without her.
He pretended he was okay to everyone... he did well in school, he socialised with his friends, hell he even cracked a joke or two but the truth was - deep down - he was a wreck.
He still woke up silently crying, his grief still too raw and exhausting to even make him scream.
He still found himself looking for her, being disappointed and heartbroken every time he realised she was still gone, never to be seen again.
He still caught himself flashing back to the night, remembering her dying moments, the trauma still fresh and painful in his brain.
He was trying to do better, to grieve healthily, but he didn't know how to.
How could he ever get over the person he knew he was supposed to share his life with?
He raced to the jeep, his safe place, gripping the steering wheel as he felt the start of a panic attack coming on, gripping his chest tightly and squeezing until he felt dizzy.
Kayla always helped with his panic attacks... was always there to coax him out of one, but she wasn't here now. She was gone forever, nothing more than a memory.
He squeezed his eyes shut, his hands turning stark white at the sheer amount of force he was gripping the leather wheel with, tethering himself to reality before he got swept up and lost in the emotions.
He missed her every damn day... ever god damn second of every day. Why couldn't it have been him? Why couldn't he have been the one to die?
He didn't know how to do this without her.
A surprisingly gentle hand found it's way to his shoulder and he jumped, gasping back breath as he looked through teary eyes to see Isaac standing next to his open door of his jeep, his blue eyes kind and understanding.
"It's okay Stiles..." Isaac soothed, "you don't have to pretend to be okay if you're not. It's okay, we understand"
He was lost, aimlessly stuck in the whirlwind of grief and loss, unable to get out.
"I miss her too... all the time" Isaac admitted, his eyes welling with unshed tears, "so god damn much"
"I... I loved her..." Stiles gasped back ragged breaths, "... so so much..."
"I know" Isaac whispered, "I loved her too"
Stiles couldn't even be mad at him for that... he couldn't rage at Isaac because he always knew, deep down, the werewolf never saw Kayla as just a friend, it was obvious, but there was no jealousy now because there was nothing to fight over.
There was no Kayla, so how could he be mad?
If anything, he felt a little sorry for Isaac because Isaac was probably the only other one that loved Kayla in that way, just like he did.
Was Isaac's heart getting ripped out too?
Did he feel disconnected and joyless despite putting on a brave face?
Were the finally on the same page, bonding over their shared grief of the girl they both loved?
Stiles wiped at his tears, hating breaking apart so easily when he was trying to hard to be stable, " I would do anything to have her back... anything" Stiles murmured fiercely, "even for a second..."
"She is back" Isaac said, pointing a finger at Stiles' chest, "in there. She's always going to be there Stiles, just like her letter said"
He wiped at his runny nose, glancing to the glove box where her goodbye letter resided, his heart breaking even more when he remembered her words, so accepting of her possible death if it meant saving him - so eerie it sent chills up his spine.
"I wish Derek managed to bring her back" Stiles admitted, "no matter what the consequences, I wished he'd have done it"
Isaac's smile was warm, his eyes portraying nothing but sympathy and friendship, "me too Stiles... me too"
A/N) yassss another chapter hahaha I just love this and am so excited to implement this new storyline. Ooooh when will Stiles and Kayla reunite... and stiles and Isaac bonding yay, it's been needed after their hatred since the first season 4 timeline haha... and aw stiles, just look downstairs you'll find her, don't be sad haha
So please please review and I think my next update will be the weekend because I have another essay due Friday so please please review it would mean the absolute world and I love you all, see you soon xxx