The air crackled with electricity. Theo stalked toward the source of it, despite every one of his senses warning to do the opposite. He descended down a short staircase and grounded himself among the Dread Doctors by placing his feet apart and crossing his arms.

"You haven't gotten your latest yet," Theo pointed out. None of them acknowledged his presence. "She was taken by the Satori and-"

"We know," the Spectacle Doctor said, a loud hissing noise punctuating its words.

Theo thought carefully before speaking. "And what about Rebecca?"

He received no response, but dare he say it, he dreaded to hear one.

One of the Doctors who wasn't facing him breathed out slowly. The other one mimicked the sound, only louder. Theo ground his teeth together, but before he could voice his frustration, the last Doctor cut through his thoughts.

"Failures."

"B-both?" Theo cleared his throat and tried again, embarrassed. "Both? So you're going to kill them both?"

"The Unknown Positive is not compatible," the Doctor continued.

"The Unknown Negative," the second Doctor corrected.

"The Unknown Negative will be disposed of," the Doctor said. "In time."

Theo clenched his jaw. "Let me take care of her."

His statement was once again met with eerie silence, apart from the occasional drip of something unpleasant from deep within the workshop.

"If she isn't compatible, than you don't need her," Theo pressed, feeling the need to explain himself to the expressionless beings in front of him. "But I do. I just need time."

More silence. The Doctor with the spectacle turned and looked at him head on, but said nothing.

"Time?" the Doctor farthest away asked, facing away still.

"Like a month or so, maybe less, maybe more," Theo said.

"And you will dispose of it?" If the Doctors did not speak in such a monotone, there might have been a glimmer of disbelief in its voice.

"Not dispose, but neutralize," Theo said, his mind spinning as hundreds of ideas began to solidify in his mind.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

The Doctor farthest away turned towards him slowly, seeming to rotate in mid-air. When its glassy eyes finally bore into Theo, he shrunk. After a pause that was too tense to only be moments, it let out a slow hiss of steam, deeper and more pensive than the last.

"Neutralize," it said.

A smile broke Theo's blank face and he turned before they could change their minds.

***

Elbow on the windowsill, Rebecca could see a news reporter visiting the remains of Connor's house. Knowing she was perfectly visible, she stared without restraint as the young woman gestured to the rubble and spouted some garbage about someone demolishing it to cover the tracks of the killer.

She was resting her chin on her fist, serene but dumbfounded at how people stretched to put things within their grasp of knowledge.

A wet nose nudged her knee and she didn't flinch. Absently, she reached out and stroked the rottweiler's ear.

The reporter wrapped up filming and Rebecca watched as the mic dropped to her side carelessly. She didn't look back at the house once, making a beeline to her car. Her face was flat and exhausted. Reporting the death of teenager after teenager had to be tiring.

The Rottweiler, irritated that Rebecca was too distracted to properly pet her, started to whine. Finally tearing her eyes away, Rebecca looked at the dog with a pleasant smile on her face.

"Hey, you needy mutt, stop that," Kamilla called from across the room, sifting through her closet.

Rebecca let out a small huff of laughter. She brought her other hand to the dog's head, scratching both her ears at once. "Needy Mutt? Is that your new name?"

"Bailey, is Rebecca patronizing me?" Kamilla asked the dog, turning to shoot her a look. "Attack her if she makes fun of my indecisiveness again."

"You wouldn't attack me, would you, Rico?" Rebecca said, making kissy faces at the dog. "Besides, you only respond to Jameson."

"Bailey!" Kamilla exclaimed. "Bite out her throat!"

Rebecca, feigning falling to the ground in agony, let Bailey lick at her face. She laughed freely. There was no Mrs. Lovelace to barge in and scold them for being too loud. After the initial laughter wore off, Rebecca still had the ghost of a smile on her face, but the fact that she knew the whereabouts of Mrs. Lovelace soured the mood. Rebeca half-heartedly pet Bailey, trying to swallow the bad taste in her mouth.

"Found it!" A leash hit her in the face and snapped her out of her reverie. Kamilla, the pitcher, was already turning to grab her coat. Rebecca wordlessly clipped the leash onto Bailey's collar, giving her one last good ear scratch before standing and following Kamilla out of the door.

Kamilla's phone went off as she stepped out of the house and was so was distracted by it that Rebecca had to dive forward so the door wouldn't crush her and Bailey. Although it was a cloudy day and too cold to be properly comfortable, Bailey was ecstatic to go for a walk as per usual.

Rebecca looked to the forest. From behind her, Kamilla cried out in surprise.

Rebecca spun around and Bailey lunged towards her owner. Rebecca's hackles lowered as she heard Kamilla's laughter and saw Theo holding her, clearly having just jumped out from behind something and scared her. However, Bailey was less at ease. Still jumping and snarling at the new arrival, Rebecca vainly tried to calm her down.

Rebecca appreciated the distraction, though, because watching Theo hug and tease Kamilla made something in her chest twinge. Eventually, Bailey's barking broke the moment. Pulling away from Theo, Kamilla bent down to console her distraught pet. Rebecca chose to watch that interaction instead of looking up at Theo, whom she hadn't known would be joining them.

She tried to channel her surprise and betrayal through her expression, but Kamilla played dumb when she stood up. "Okay! Let's go."

***

As hard as Kamilla tried, she couldn't get Rebecca to fully enter any conversation, even when Theo asked where Ren was.

"With his dad, at Rebecca's," Kamilla said, jerking her head towards Rebecca, who had strayed away from the two others, allowing Bailey to yank her away from the centre of the path. "He said his dad was going to train him a bit using Lori."

"Oh yeah?" Theo said, seeming happy to ignore Rebecca. "Like, learning new techniques and stuff?"

"Sorta," Kamilla replied, kicking a stick that was in her way.

Rebecca, a look of disdain on her face, looked away to hide her expression so she wouldn't start an argument. Kamilla noticed anyway.

"What?" Rebecca pretended she didn't hear. "Oh my God, not this again. Come on, Rebecca. If anyone deserves it, it's her."

Not saying a word, Rebecca gave her a venomous glare, then turned her attention back to Bailey peeing against a bush.

"That was pretty wild what Ren did to that chimera," Theo said after a moment of silence spent waiting for Bailey to finish. "Is killing people part of his power spectrum?"

"Rebecca knows him best," Kamilla offered.

"I wasn't asking Rebecca," Theo said shortly. Rebecca sucked in her cheeks slightly and grimaced, but wouldn't turn away..

"Ren's a Satori, a.k.a. an ancient Japanese monkey-like creature that used to read people's minds faster than they could think it," Rebecca said matter-of-factly, angling her head so she could be heard clearly, but wouldn't have to look at either of them. "They used this to trick and eat people. Those are Ren's ancestors. His abilities have evolved so that he has to touch someone to read minds-"

"Yeah, pretty sure we know that already," Theo interrupted.

Rebecca stopped walking, causing Kamilla and a reluctant Theo to do the same. The expression on her face voiced barely restrained frustration. When she spoke, her voice was louder this time. "But he's also evolved so that he can distort memories and perceptions with the right training."

Theo looked at her and raised his eyebrows mockingly. "Thanks for the useless history lesson that totally didn't answer my question."

"Woah," Kamilla tried to step between them, but Theo moved so he wouldn't break eye contact with Rebecca.

"Then use your head," Rebecca raises her eyebrows. "If someone can sift through your memories, what makes you so certain they can't go through your mind and accidentally change your memories that taught you how to function? Like breathing?"

"All I'm hearing are conspiracy theories," Theo watched as Rebecca puffed up in annoyance. "If you're trying to scare me, it isn't working. How about you educate us about something you do know about; what the hell you are."

"Hey!" Kamilla shouted, pushing Theo backward by the shoulders. He stumbled back, but regained his balance quickly. "It's not that simple, stop being an asshole."

Theo, miffed at Kamilla taking Rebecca's side, rounded on her. "If she's got an explanation, I have time to hear it."

Rebecca clicked her tongue and kept walking, feeling Theo's eyes burning the back of her neck.

"Lay off," Kamilla warned, gaining Theo's attention by flashing her blue wolf eyes at him. She too continued walking. After a second of looking at the ground to control his temper, he followed.

The rest of the walk was uneventful, Rebecca walking quicker than Theo so she had an excuse to not look in his direction until Kamilla eventually told Theo it was best he left. Kamilla only chastised Rebecca gently after he was totally out of earshot. It was nothing Rebecca hadn't told herself; she knows she should have told him earlier.

Instead of pondering on her and Theo's altercation earlier that day, she busied herself tending to Connor, who had taken up temporary residence in her closet after Rebecca physically stopped him from leaving.

"I'm sorry," Connor said for what seemed like the millionth time. Rebecca was sewing up a hole he made in her shirt with her mother's old needle. She didn't look up or even grunt to acknowledge him.

He watched as she held up the cotton shirt, inspecting to see if the hole was properly sealed. Dissatisfied, she brought it back to her desk and continued to work.

"Did I do something? Something else, I mean?" Connor asked. He shivered slightly due to the cool air leaking through the window. "Do you need to keep that open?"

If his words affected her, he couldn't tell. Intensely focused, she rolled her tongue over her lip and refused to answer.

"You deserve to be mad at me, I know, but you can't ignore me forever."

She ripped the needle out of the fabric and grabbed her scissors. Connor couldn't see what else she did before she turned around. Instead of speaking to him, she threw the shirt directly at his face then stood up and grabbed her backpack. She walked to the bed and began to rifle through her books.

A few minutes passed and he hung his head. Looking up only to see a completely apathetic face, he rested his elbows on his knees and focused on the floor.

"I've always liked you, Becks," Connor said quietly. His tone had a twinge of melancholy she couldn't ignore. "And I accept that it's always just gonna be me. I don't want to make you upset, but I have to do something you're not going to like."

The reply this time was instantaneous. "Like what?"

"I said I've accepted that none of this is your fault," he said. "I want to kill the person who is. To blame, I mean. And I know-"

"You're not just going on a rampage," Rebecca said, her voice too passionate for her apathetic act to hold up.

Connor looked up at her again, seeing a scowl but welcoming it nonetheless. It was something, at least. "Remember when you used to drive me home from football games?"

Rebecca looked away again with an over exaggerated sigh. Pretending to still look for something, she tried to play off how intensely she was watching him from the corner of her eye. He stood up, fumbling with the shirt, trying to turn it right side out.

"Or when we used to just hang out after school and talk? I miss that."

"I'm not just going to let you kill someone," Rebecca said, finality in her voice. She glanced over at him but decided she would crumble if she held his gaze. "Whoever it is."

"I can't tell you," Connor said, reading her thoughts. "I need to do this."

Rebecca opened her mouth just as a loud crash from downstairs scared her out of her skin. Connor leaped to his feet. They waited for a second and heard timid shuffling.

Rebecca deflated. "It's just Mrs. Lovelace."

Connor made a snarling sound in his throat while slipping the t-shirt back onto his body. "That demon woman used to yell at my brother for playing too loudly in our backyard."

"Well," Rebecca started, trying to think of something to say to distract him. The only thing that came to mind was to regurgitate the same thing her mom kept on telling her: "At least now she's doing something useful for the world."

Connor looked down at her. His eyes softened. "You are too."

Rebecca looked up at him, uncomfortable at the sudden change in his mood. Glancing away, then back at him only to see the same intense expression, she looked at her bag again. "Yeah."

Connor hesitated before sitting down. There was nothing he could say. The room seemed too small for the two of them and it made a wave of fatigue wash over him. He rubbed his face.

Despite seeing the discomfort on Rebecca's face, Connor spoke: "I owe you everything for what you've done for me."

"No." Was Rebecca's heartfelt reply. "We're even."

"For what?" Connor scoffed. "I would have eaten half the town by now-"

"For this summer," Rebecca said quickly. "I was struggling. You struggled. We helped each other, and now we're even." Connor looked hurt, even if he suspected her monotone was forced. "Don't sweat it."

"So if another druid comes to town, I don't have to help again?" Connor asked, stilling Rebecca by simply mentioning it. "If Ren and his whole family are about to be sacrificed to dark druids I should kick my feet up and do nothing?" If-"

"Shut up, Connor," Rebecca said, her voice laced with an unspoken threat. "I'm not in the mood."

"Why not?" Connor said, much more softly this time. He gave her time to answer. After a few minutes passed he thought she just wasn't going to.

He stood up, ready to walk to the closet and sleep on a pile of Rebecca's old clothes as per usual. She spoke to his back, effectively stopping him in his tracks.

"I don't confide in people that I don't trust."

"Bullshit," he replied. He could practically sense her swelling in indignation.

"Care to explain what that means?" she asked quietly, clenching her fists so tightly her palms started to sting.

"You'd cut yourself open if someone told you it would make them feel better."

She shook her head, scowling. "Don't pretend you know me. Don't say anything about me ever again."

"Goodnight, Rebecca," Connor said, opening her closet door and stepping inside. Chest starting to heave, she picked up her nearest textbook and flung it at the closing door. The sound was loud but gratifying as she proceeded to yank her hair out of her skull.

Lori Lovelace halted all movement upon hearing a loud crash from upstairs. In a dreamlike state, she looked up and stared at where she guessed the noise came from. First what sounded like growling, and now this?

She looked back down and stared at the unconscious girl's arm. Those were .. spikes. They couldn't be. Could they?

Her eyes then turned to a cabinet by the stairs. If she goes over and opens it, she'll definitely find Myriam's gun case. She had seen her file away her extra, if she walked over a few steps she'd get the key from the other drawer and ...

However, her mind was too cloudy to do anything other than sanitize wounds like she was supposed to.