Sike! I'm not done with this story. Especially since this is such an important chapter.

(There is one heavy swear in this chapter as well. I don't think I've had very serious swearing thus far)


To be fair, Gus was suspicious when Kamilla showed up at the factory on foot.

"Where'd you come from?" he asked, rising from his place in Theo's passenger seat. While running her fingers through her hair, Kamilla offered an out of breath smile.

"I got a ride with my mum until we came close," she explained, aiming her thumb to the east, where she had appeared. "At the edge of the forest, I ran the rest of the way."

From around the corner came Ren's mocking scoff, and it distracted Gus enough for his eyes to wander in the general direction of the sound. Afraid to give away her friends' hiding place, Kamilla broke into a dead sprint for the old werewolf.

He sidestepped her easily, but his attention was now firmly on her. She kept on running, past Theo, whom she gave a friendly punch to as she whizzed by.

"Chimera's in here, right?" Kamilla shouted, slowing to a jog but still nearing the entrance of the factory. With an agitated groan, Gus waved his hand at Theo, gesturing him to follow her.

However, Theo lingered until Gus was halfway to the door of the factory. The werewolf pulled out his phone and scrolled down his contacts.

Ren, who was peering around the corner to see if the coast was clear, turned around to give an irritated glance at Rebecca. Shaking her head, Ren answered her unspoken question by mouthing the word 'Theo'. Irked, she pursed her lips together and sat back on her heels.

Theo pressed the number he wanted to call, and waited. A second went by, then another.

When Ren's phone began to ring, Rebecca's heart nearly leaped right out of her chest. The Satori ripped the device out of his pocket and fumbled with it before dropping it on the ground. Rebecca extended her hand, putting her palm directly over the device, and the silence that followed was jarring. The phone still buzzed as Rebecca forced the sound to stay trapped instead of echoing around the compound.

Cautious despite knowing everyone with ears heard the commotion, Ren peeked around the building they were squatting behind. In all his smug glory, Theo ended the call, giving Ren a knowing look before following Gus and Kamilla.

Ren pressed his tongue against his cheek, and rest his head against the wall. "Who the hell gave him my number?"

"Kamilla?" Rebecca suggested, equally as frazzled.

"I'm gonna kill her," Ren promised. "I'm going to skin her and make werewolf stew."

Engrossed in her thoughts, Rebecca didn't answer. Why the hell did Theo call Ren and not her? And why did he want to know if they were there or not? They didn't plan on going in, Rebecca had chickened out on the ride there. She didn't want to risk pissing off her mom, but she said she would drive Kamilla to the factory at least.

"Now what?" Ren asked, wondering if his friend wanted to drive away now that Theo knew they were here. Rebecca was hesitant enough not to show herself but eager enough to ditch her car way back so the werewolves wouldn't hear her coming.

In response, Rebecca sat down on the ground, staring at Ren's face down cellphone. She bent her knees and rest her elbows on them, a blank expression on her face. Ren took a seat next to her, then picked up his phone and wiped it off.

"Can I ask you something?" Rebecca said, tapping her fingers on her elbow. Ren nodded, but his eyes were still focused on the cement they rested on.

"Did you bring your deck of cards?"

Ren snorted. "Obviously." He brandished a fifty two pack from his coat pocket. Tattered as they were, they were definitely usable. Before he handed them to her so she could shuffled, he raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Stakeout?"

Grinning, Rebecca nodded. "Stakeout indeed."


It was cold, and the dry air didn't assist their shivering in the slightest. With backs up against a factory wall, they tossed their cards on the ground as quickly as they could. It was so they could go back to hiding their hands in their sleeves, but the breeze wasn't fond of their idea. A huff of air was all it took to send their cards skittering just out of reach.

"Ah! Grab it!" Ren yelped, lurching in the direction of an escaping card but not extending a hand to help. Rebecca, who also didn't want to expose her hands to the frigid air, wriggled her body towards the card. In one last desperate attempt to save it, she fell over. Successfully trapping it under her body, Rebecca crowed in victory.

Ren waited a few seconds for his friend to rise and continue playing. Rebecca, however, seemed content to lay on the ground. Kicking her with his knee, Ren's teeth chattered as he said:

"Get up, you lazy ass."

"No," Rebecca said. "I can't move."

"Oh my god…" Ren began, but sputtered into silence. His ears twitched.

Rebecca sat up, twisting her body awkwardly to look at the Satori, and received a mouthful of hair for her efforts. The wind carried a sound the Ren recognized instantly. He jolted into action, standing up and turning to haul Rebecca to her feet as well.

"What? What?" Rebecca asked, allowing herself to be yanked up. Ren was distracted, listening to the screeching wind. "Is it them?"

Shocked at his own heightened abilities, Ren was impatient with her questions. He started to walk away before explaining what had sent him into his trance. That didn't go over well with Rebecca.

"Hey! What the hell…" Rebecca shouted, scrambling to catch up to him. When she did, her hand latched onto his elbow, preventing him from taking another step. Initially, she looked angry, and her mouth opened to chew him out. The wind took a break from howling and suddenly, Rebecca could hear it too.

"That's …" she said, eyes widening.

"Kamilla," Ren finished, taking a step backwards toward the factory entrance. "She's howling."

Rebecca matched Ren's quick pace as he charged toward the door, the shrill sound of their friend's howl ringing in his ears.

Cobwebs and the groaning of rusted metal made Rebecca glance over her shoulder every few seconds. Kamilla had long since stopped howling, the sound dying in an uncertain wobble. Yet Ren blazed down rickety stairs, not bothering to look and see if Rebecca was even following. Every footfall echoed into the darkness that thrived beyond the fluorescent lights.

"Oh God," Rebecca muttered, the cold amplifying despite thin walls separating her from the chilling night. "Ren? Are we close?"

"Rebecca?" Kamilla cried out. Jumping out of her skin, Rebecca's shock was quickly replaced by relief. At least she hadn't stopped howling because … well. "Ren? Rebecca?"

Ren reached her first, but Rebecca was hot on his heels. Kamilla's voice emanated from behind a large support beam, but she was nowhere in sight. The blonde werewolf poked out from the other side, beckoning them closer. She looked stricken.

The knowledge that the support beam was on the ground instead of supporting the building sent Rebecca into another whirlwind of anguish. However, her worrying evaporated from her mind when she saw the state Gus was in; lying unconscious, his legs trapped underneath said beam.

"Holy shit," Rebecca gasped, taking a step forward but not having a clue as to what she could do to help. Seeing him so vulnerable and unmoving crumbled her bravery as well as her ability to stay standing. Falling to her knees beside him, she gingerly outstretched a hand to touch his face. She didn't even hear Kamilla's voice until she began to shake her shoulder angrily.

Snapping her head up, Rebecca shoved Kamilla's hand away. With a clenched jaw and wet eyes, she finally turned to her impatient friend. "What?"

"Don't get mad at me," Kamilla snarled, leaning closer to challenge her. "I'm not the one who trapped him…"

"Both of you, shut the hell up!" Ren shouted, making both of them jump and then bow their heads in shame. "Is he even still alive?"

"Yeah," Kamilla answered quickly, but checked his neck again just in case. "He passed out a few minutes ago…"

"Okay, then we need to get this thing off of him," Ren spoke out loud what all three of them were thinking. Obviously Kamilla couldn't do it, or else it would already be done. Ren couldn't exactly mind control the piece of metal away, so Rebecca rose to her feet.

Kamilla scrambled away, dragging Ren back by the arm. They watched with horrible fascination as Rebecca had no choice but to do what she hadn't done in months. Would she even be able to lift it?

What they didn't know was that the expression on her face didn't have a trace of doubt. Feeling guilty that they would discover her dirty little secret, she took a deep breath. Extending her hand for guiding purposes, she felt her stomach tighten then relax. The howling wind died down to nothing and a hissing noise replaced it. An invisible force swept underneath the beam, separating from the alpha werewolf…

… And she lifted it. Without so much as a bead of sweat, Rebecca picked up the beam and threw it a few feet away. She hadn't moved a muscle, and neither did her audience.

Turning to throw them an unreadable look, she swallowed her shame. They both looked bewildered, but it was Kamilla who spoke: "You never stopped practicing, did you?"

"No," Rebecca answered flatly, hoping that if she didn't react neither would they. Yet she still felt the need to explain herself. "It's not like a bad habit, guys. I can't just quit."

"You lied to your mom all this time?" Ren didn't sound angry. Rebecca flinched anyway.

"She doesn't get it," Rebecca whispered, wishing she could look away from them She punished herself by holding their gazes.

Until, that is, it was stolen by a shape that moved just outside the light. Eyes going wide, Rebecca lurched forward instinctively. "Watch out!"

"Shh!" The shape stepped forward with his hands held above his head. Theo dodged Kamilla's punch that she had sent before looking at her target. "She's close by."

Rebecca stood tall in his presence. Her chin was thrust forward, but she listened to his words carefully. Ren looked bitter, probably still aggravated over the whole phone number incident.

"Have any of you seen anything?" Theo quizzed, looking between the three of them earnestly. "She's got these huge spikes on her arm, and she moves fast. Really fast."

"A supernatural creature snooping around in the shadows?" Ren shrugged. "I've only seen one of those." After the pointed look he gave to Theo, Kamilla growled under her breath.

"Otsuka, not here," she ordered.

"Oh, I'm sorry if I have my doubts," Ren snapped. "But I want to know why you and Raeken Boy Wonder weren't able to lift that beam together."

"What the hell do you mean?" Theo demanded. "I was trying to find the damn chimera that we came here to get in the first place…"

"Great job so far, bud," Ren applauded, pretending to salute him. "Why the hell couldn't you find her? I thought you were good at everything?"

Rebecca, who heard a scuffling sound right behind her, whipped her head to the source. Coming face to face with what she assumed was the chimera, all the air left her lungs in one fatal huff. The chimera was a girl her height with eyes that completely black and haunting. Theo had warned she had giant spikes, and that was no exaggeration. As if half scorpion, the chimera had four to five hooks erupting from each arm. If her eyes weren't playing tricks, Rebecca could have sworn they were dripping too. The thing standing before her was a shell of Stacey McLennon.

Staring at the chimera as her friends continued to fight, Rebecca waited for what seemed like forever for the chimera to move. When it upturned its lip menacingly, Rebecca did what instinct commanded her to do:

Step back and punch it straight in the face.

The crunch of Rebecca's knuckles connecting with the chimera's jaw resonated in the factory and forced the chimera to stagger to the side. Realizing what was standing roughly a foot away from Rebecca, Theo and Kamilla leapt into action.

Kamilla, who was closer, brushed past Rebecca and picked the chimera up by the tattered rags that used to be the poor girl's vest. Slamming the chimera into a metal rung, a bloodthirsty growl ripped from her throat. The spikes on the chimera's arm stood straight as she prepared to retaliate.

Theo crept up on the two supernaturals wrestling against the rung. In his pursuit to assistance, he only added an extra glimmer of desperation in Stacey's lifeless eyes. One haphazard scratch from the chimera's spike sent Kamilla screaming to the ground.

Theo distanced himself as quickly as he could, and in the time it took for him to do so, Kamilla was unconscious from the pain. Rebecca shoved Ren towards the path from which they had came. Not forming the command for him to run but creating a blockade with her body so he had no choice but to leave, Rebecca ignored Ren's protests.

His voice in the eerily quiet factory drew the attention of Stacey. Standing in between Ren and the chimera was Rebecca and her twitching fists. Stacey squared her shoulders and bared shark like teeth as Rebecca flared her nostrils.

Theo held as much significance as a shadow in that moment, and even though he had the opportunity to leap forward and try to tackle the chimera, he held his breath instead. Unable to hide the burning curiosity and wonder in his eyes, Theo Raeken couldn't keep his eyes off of Rebecca.

In those few seconds she felt a rush of confidence; she could take out this chimera. Looking into its eyes, she knew. She tuned her ears to focus on the howling wind outside, but before it consumed her, a lightbulb exploded.

Shocking her out of her power trip, Rebecca flinched and stumbled away. The chimera was not fazed, cold and unfeeling. But Rebecca was weighed down by the very human emotion of fear. The electricity reminded her of what had created the thing she stared at. The Dread Doctors; that changed Stacey to the point Rebecca could barely recognize that she had once been human.

Not only that, but common sense made her fingers buzz with adrenaline. She could have made a mistake. She could have hurt someone.

Heeding the advice of not only the voice of Myriam in the back of her mind, but also the prompt from the now dead librarian, she launched herself forward.

The empty shell that once was Stacey jerked forward too, almost upon the strawberry blonde. Yet in at the last second, Rebecca darted to the right and sprinted towards a set of stairs. Hoping as much as her heart could handle, Rebecca practically flew deeper into the heart of the factory.

The thrill of the chase pumped through Rebecca, and the feeling was mutual, according to the guttural howl Stacey omitted before dropping down on all fours and leaping after her.

"Rebecca!" Ren shrieked at the sight of Rebecca being hunted by the chimera. His voice became even louder and more panicked when they disappeared from sight. "Rebecca!"

"You're not doing any good," Theo snapped. Taking out his frustration on Ren was the easiest thing to do, so he rounded on the Satori quickly. "She's gone. You're not doing anything."

Opening then closing his mouth, Ren was silent and slack jawed for only a moment before finding the right words. "You motherfucker-"

"Shut up," Theo warned, walking over to Kamilla and pretending to take her pulse. In reality, his mind was too distracted by Rebecca to worry about anything else. She was, after all, the reason behind the red in his vision. She couldn't just show him her powers and get it over with, could she? She had to make things so much more complicated…

"You have the audacity to tell me to shut up when we both just witnessed that thing … that thing go after … you saw what happened!" Ren shouted, sputtering and panicky. He ran his fingers through his hair before stomping towards the staircase Rebecca had raced down minutes ago.

Theo moved quickly, but Ren didn't realize how quickly until Raeken was blocking his path and shoving him backwards. Not to mention how strong Theo was; a light shove sent Ren staggering back.

"What are you doing?" Theo demanded, his voice frighteningly calm. "Are you going to go down there and feel up that thing? Huh? So you can see how much it wants to kill us?"

"What else am I supposed to do?" Ren said. Being more unstable and less physically capable than Theo put him at a clear disadvantage. However, it fogged his mind enough that his statement became a genuine question.

"Stay up here," Theo replied. He pointed at Ren's chest as if the motion underlined his order. "Call for help. Preferably not Rebecca's mom. Make sure Gus and Kamilla aren't dead."

"And you'll go down and save Rebecca?" Ren asked. Anyone but the werewolf in front of him, and his tone of voice would be lighter.

"Yeah," Theo said, offering Ren a chance to argue. As the Satori sealed his mouth shut, Theo allowed himself a moment of smugness. He quickly turned on his heel and descended down the staircase going who knows where.

Frozen for a heartbeat, Ren watched Theo disappear before the howling wind drowned out his ringing ears.


Always running. She wasn't a bad runner, but the fearing for her life bit could have been removed and there wouldn't be much complaint from Rebecca.

She tried to be smart about her escape; frantically slapping the old metal doors with her hand as she sprinted by. But the chimera charged through the heavy doors as if they were made of styrofoam, so Rebecca eventually stopped trying to slow her pursuer. Instead, she focused on evading capture by taking sharp turns and using Stacey's full out charge against her.

What she would do when she couldn't run anymore was a thought that she couldn't bear to humour herself with. A slow and bloody death was a good motivator to run faster at first, but the ache in her lungs from the musty air drowned out her adrenaline.

Fortunately, she didn't have to worry about running out of breath; she reached a dead end before that could happen. Slapping the light switch with her hand, it took a few heartbeats for the fluroescent lights to sputter to life. The room she ran into was full of transformers and boilers that she didn't see until she was halfway across. With eyes that flit across every crevice but found no escape, Rebecca denied her predicament at first.

No exit.

What?

Rebecca slowed down but didn't stop running. Her head whipped around and she began to chant 'no' under her breath, but no amount of pleading would make an alternate entrance appear.

She kept on running until she slowed to a halt right in front of the main transformer, a carcass of a once magnificent machine.

In horror movies that Rebecca watched on rare occasions, the beast would often slow down before striking. Yet Rebecca knew that she wasn't in a movie, so when she spun around and saw Stacey sprinting full tilt towards her, she shouldn't have been surprised.

Though the sight of a demonic teenager with giant spikes on her arms and coal black eyes did a bit more to Rebecca than the average jump scared would.

She didn't have time to scream. Hell, Rebecca couldn't have reacted any differently if the notion of caution was anything more than a distant idea. Her hair stood up on her head, the normally wavy strawberry blond completely straight as if she had been electrocuted. Stacey, though a second ago in mid air, was blown backwards and sent sprawling to the ground.

After her moment of weakness left her gasping, Rebecca's mind was too blurry to properly fend off the recovering chimera in the same way. Her vision was questionable, but she could spot a weapon when she glimpsed an old crowbar lying about.

Heaving it up, Rebecca realized that she wasn't as strong as she thought. She was thrown off balance by the too heavy object, just as the chimera started hurdling towards her once more.

In a last ditch effort to save herself, Rebecca curled into a ball, abandoning the crowbar and allowing Stacey to sail right over her head and crash into the transformer behind her. The noise of the chimera's crash was enough to throw Rebecca off balance again.

Unfortunately, she didn't have the luxury of slowing down. Though sprawled on the floor, her eyes never stopped scanning the room, looking for something to defend herself with.

She had seen a lever near the entrance, but it looked rusted in its place. There was a twisted piece of metal close to an old boiler. Though Rebecca didn't want to gamble on its smaller size.

What she was willing to place her money on, however, was a fair sized pipe that didn't look too heavy. Too bad there was no way Rebecca would be able to get to it before Stacey got to her.

There was no point in calculating whether she would survive the five second sprint, not when Stacey was hissing and rising to her feet. Rebecca propelled herself on all fours, more worried about survival than the muscle she pulled in her shoulder by doing so.

It didn't take Theo long to track Rebecca down; the deafening clatter of laboured breathing and crashing metal drew him to the old boiler room almost immediately. He stopped right before entering, peering in and seeing Rebecca duck down to grab a pipe on the ground. It was far too thin if she planned on defending herself with it, he mused. Despite watching the chimera get dangerously close to slicing Rebecca like a ribbon, he made no move to help.

Rebecca exhaled sharply as Stacey's arm missed her head by a hair. She aimed to kill, that was obvious.

Spinning around to face her opponent and sliding her feet into a position that distributed her weight evenly, Rebecca swung the pipe like a baseball bat. The chimera took the blow like a champ; stumbling to the side, but throwing her own attack a second later.

An open mouth and bugging eyes were the responses to Stacey's lack of reaction. A square blow to the head and that was it?

She was smart enough to dodge Stacey's swipe, but just barely. Shuffling to the right and continuing to shift until she was behind the chimera, Rebecca prayed Stacey didn't have an uber flexible spine. With a smart wack to the kneecap, Stacey should have been on the ground. Instead, she extended her arms and spun around to face Rebecca, spikes up and ready to attack.

At that moment, Rebecca was in a terrible position and both of them knew it. The only exit was on the opposite side of the room, the giant transformer was to her right, and Rebecca was being backed into a corner.

Taking a bold step forward to push the chimera back, Rebecca found herself in an even worse position: the small of her back was being slammed into a railing she hadn't seen before. There was a terrifying moment where Rebecca nearly lost her balance and toppled over the railing to god knows what. Judging by the whoosh of air that emanated from the unwavering darkness, it was a long way down.

Half hidden in shadows, Stacey McLennon was one of the most terrifying things Rebecca had ever seen. When the chimera raised her arms and prepared to bring them down in a one last, fatal blow, Rebecca watched her hair twist. It was scraggly and disgusting, and didn't resemble the beautiful hair that Rebecca saw in Stacey McLennon's old photos at all. Seeing it was just one more reminder that the thing about to murder her was a teenage girl who didn't ask for any of this. What terrified Rebecca, however, was the grim acceptance of what she was going to have to do to her.

The light didn't touch the corner they were in, so when Rebecca's eyes turned solid grey, it was extremely evident that they were glowing. Stacey flinched away from the sight of them. The pain on the chimera's face nearly persuaded Rebecca to back down.

Rebecca thrust her palm into the chimera's chest, and it wasn't the motion itself that threw Stacey back, but the air that was thrown behind the blow. Using the circulation she knew was in the room, Rebecca's job of channeling it to her advantage became easier.

From the doorway came an audible intake of breath from Theo, even though the sound was drowned out by the rush of air gravitating towards Rebecca. Paired with her glowing eyes and practiced stance, she became someone totally different. Theo felt his chest tighten at the spectacle.

Though it wasn't necessary for Rebecca to move her arms while directing the air currents around her, she found it kept things more organized. Trapped in an ethereal dance, she pivoted her body so most of her body was on one leg. Her left arm pointed at Stacey as the other focused on nothing in particular, but just as straight and poised. A gust of wind swirled around her right hand, continuing down her body before being expelled out of the other arm.

When the chimera was hit with the crushing mass of pure oxygen, it found itself temporarily pinned to the floor. It thrashed and shook, but Rebecca never relented.

The feeling in her gut was far from painful. In fact, Rebecca found herself getting high on the sensation of freedom. Freedom to stretch her abilities, albeit in a very confined space. Yet that high was precisely why it was so important for her to yank herself away.

Swinging her right arm around to deliver one final hit, Rebecca couldn't help but ease her hip to the side. The power really was getting to her head.

To pull her out of her reverie, two sickening snaps of bone echoed in the large room. Immediately, Rebecca's eyes stopped glowing, and her face contorted into shock and guilt.

She had accidentally broken both of Stacey's arms instead of knocking her out. The pain was so intense that Stacey passed out almost instantly after gurgling her distress.

Rebecca covered her mouth with her hands, drawing in her limbs. She hadn't just done that, had she?

"What the hell was that?"

"Ah!" Rebecca shrieked as Theo emerged from the doorway, adorned with a look of shock and disgust.

His face showed disdain, but his heart pounded in his ears. What he had just witnessed not only blew his mind, but it roused his stomach into doing backflips. She didn't need to know that, though.

Going white, Rebecca lowered her hands to her sides. She didn't know where to even begin. He had seen what just happened. He had caught her in the lie of not knowing about the supernatural. Standing emotionally naked in front of Theo Raeken made her wish she had actually cascaded over that railing.

"You better have one hell of an explanation for this," Theo scoffed with widened eyes and a tightly wound jaw.


I have really no excuse for not writing, so I won't bother you much with the standard "I had school" or "Personal life". You know the drill.

Anon: Thank you! How's this? ;)

Larissa B: I've GOT YOU covered, don't even worry :)

Guest: Thanks do much! I'm quite fond of the Theocca dynamic as well. Here's an update!