Fireflies:

Derek paced in front of me as I leaned against Derek's SUV at the entrance of the Beacon Hills preserve and I held my cell phone up to my ear with a frown on my lips.

"You lost them?" I asked Scott in exasperation as I ran a hair through my long brunette hair in frustration and Derek stopped pacing in front of me as he listened to our conversation.

"Yeah, I kind of had to." My brother admitted sheepishly through the phone line and I squeezed my eyes shut tightly as I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Wasn't exactly the plan." I said in tight fake cheerful voice as I opened my eyes and I quirked an eyebrow at Derek as he shook his head silently.

"I know, which is why I think that we should stick together. Trust me, he's too strong, too fast, and way too angry for one person to handle. We've got to do this together."

"Look, Derek and I are at the trails by the entrance to the preserve. Can you meet us here?"

"Yeah. Just got to drop something off first." He told me with a hint of amusement in his voice as though he was in on a secret I wasn't and I scowled at the phone as I hung up without another word. I leaned my head back against the closed car door as I sighed heavily and pursed my lips together in annoyance as I shoved my phone in the pocket of my leather jacket. I glanced over at Derek in concern as he started pacing impatiently and I crossed my arms over my chest as I tilted my head to the side.

"Are you okay?" I asked him quietly with a small frown on my lips and he turned to look at me with an eyebrow raised in disbelief that I could even ask that question giving the circumstance. "Well, obviously you're not okay, but are you okay enough to handle this?"

"I just can't believe Cora's alive." Derek murmured softly to himself as he stopped pacing with a sigh and he crossed his arms over his broad chest as he turned to face me.

"For now."

"You think we're going to have to kill her and Boyd." He stated in a resigned voice as he nodded once and I saw the pain in his greenish eyes as he looked away from me out into the forest. I pushed myself off of the car with my foot as I let my arms fall to my sides and I shook my head in denial as I forced out a scoff.

"Oh no. I think we'll find them, stop them, blah blah blah. But once we do, I'm going to kill her." I told him with a smirk on my lips as I walked closer to him and he looked over at me with a ghost of a smirk on his handsome face as he nodded at the small amount of hope that I had given him. The smirk on my face faded into a small frown as I gently placed my hand on Derek's elbow and I stepped closer to him as I looked earnestly into his eyes. "This isn't your fault, Derek. Erica wasn't your fault."

"I'm the one who turned her. That makes it my fault, Sophie." he said in a hard tight voice as he looked down at the ground in a mixture of sorrow and guilt in his eyes and I shook my head sadly as I tightened my grip on his arm.

"And I'm the one who suggested you turn her. You gave her a gift when you gave her the Bite, Derek. You gave her confidence and friends and you took away the pain that came with the epilepsy. You gave her everything she wanted. You are not the one who kidnapped her. You are not the one who starved her of the full moon. You are not the one who killed her." I reminded him firmly as I forced his chin up to meet my eyes and he stared at me for a long moment of silence as he searched my face until he slowly nodded although I could tell that he didn't fully believe me. I sighed slightly as he released his face from my grasp before I drew him into a hug and I felt his body stiffened under my touch as he slowly hugged me back. I felt his body relax as he wrapped his arms around my waist and he buried his head into the crook of my neck as I held him comfortingly. I heard the sound of hurried footsteps approaching in the forest as the familiar scent that was Scott flooded my senses and I stepped back from the embrace with a small smile on my lips as Derek stepped back also.

"You guys ready?" I heard Scott ask from behind us as I turned around to face my brother and I smiled at him sarcastically as I nodded my head in answer. The three of us took off running through the woods as the wind blew the two rapid Beta's scent straight at us and I instinctively followed it as the others trailed after me. After ten minutes of running in the same direction through the woods, the scent disappeared and I came to a stop in the middle of a clearing with Derek and Scott next to me. Derek silently glanced down at a footprint in the dirt as Scott walked over to stand next to me and I gently sniffed the air to see if I could catch their scent.

"Is it them?" Scott asked the Alpha curiously as he looked around the forest and I frowned in discontent as I sighed slightly.

"We're not the only ones that decided to stick together." Derek replied quietly without looking at us as he searched the ground for more footprints and I quickly redid my hair so that it wasn't flying in my face.

"Is that gonna make it easier or harder to catch them?"

"I don't know."

"Derek... I saw Boyd try to rip two little kids apart. Are they gonna do that to everyone they find?"

"Everyone and anyone."

"We're going to need some help. I'm calling Isaac." I announced as I pulled my cell phone out of my jacket pocket and dialled Isaac's familiar number by heart as I held the phone up to my ear.

"Hello?" Isaac's drowsy voice greeted me through the phone line and I frowned enviously that he got to sleep while the rest of us were out trying to save the day.

"Wake up, sleeping beauty. We need help, so get your ass to the Beacon Hills preserve now." I told him pointedly in a firm voice as I turned away some sort of privacy even though I knew the others could both easily hear the conversation.

"Yes, your majesty. Anything else, you majesty?" he asked me sarcastically as he tried to stifle a yawn and I smirked coyly as I put a hand on my jutted out hip.

"Ooh, I kinda like you calling me 'your majesty'. Now say it in a whisper."

"Sophie!" Scott protested with a groan from behind me as Isaac chuckled on the other side of the call and I grimaced slightly because in had forgotten that my brother was there as I turned around to give him an innocent smile.

"Right. Sorry, Scott. Isaac, can you please bring me a clean shirt from my room at the loft? This one's covered in blood." I explained as I gingerly touched the bloodied black shirt I was currently wearing with a frown.

"Sure. I'll meet you guys soon." Isaac told me as he hung up the phone and I placed it safely back into my jacket pocket as I walked to the other two. Scott was checking his phone messages as Derek stood off to the side with a worried frown on his face and I sighed heavily with exasperation as I leaned against a tree nearby. A few minutes later I heard a rustling in the forest and we all tensed in case it was Boyd or Cora but I detected Isaac's scent as he stepped into the clearing.

"Hey. Catch." Isaac said in greeting as he threw a clean shirt at me with a wink and I smiled at him gratefully as I caught the shirt in mid-air.

"Thank you, handsome." I said to him with a wink of my own as I shrugged out of my leather jacket and pulled the destroyed singlet off over my head as I noticed Scott's shocked expression. I frowned at him in confusion as I gave him an incredulous look and he nodded his head discreetly towards where Isaac and Derek stood with their back to us. "What? It's not like they haven't seen my in just a bra before."

"What?!" Scott exclaimed in surprise as he clenched his hands into fists with a hard edge in his voice and I felt my eye go wide as I subtly glanced at Derek to see him looking back at me with an eyebrow raised.

"I mean, they've seen me train in my sports bra, right? That's basically the same thing." I corrected myself quickly as I pulled the clean shirt on and I hoped that my heartbeat didn't prove I was lying to my brother. Scott still looked a little dubious as he frowned at me suspiciously and I smiled at him innocently as I tossed my bloodied shirt to the side of the clearing. I froze as I heard the sound of growling echoing from far away and I tilted my head to the side with a frown on my lips. "Can you guys hear that?"

"Cora and Boyd." Derek stated knowingly as he glanced at me with a determined expression and I nodded in agreement as we all took running towards the growling. The growls got louder as we split up to circle around the area where it was coming from and I hurried forward to see Cora in full werewolf mode breathing heavily as she slowly walked towards a brunette human girl with a frightened expression. The human's heartbeat was racing as I rushed forward as fast as I could and Cora spun around to face me with a loud snarl as she stepped towards me. She went to swipe at my head as I approached her but I ducked swiftly as I curled my hand into a fist and aimed a punch to her jaw as I hard as I could. I couldn't help but smirked victoriously as it made a satisfying crack as it connected with her face and she stumbled back onto the ground with a grunt. Cora snarled at me from my ground as she climbed to her feet and I stepped back as she rushed at me with her arms stretched out making me sail through the air until I hit a branch. My back contacted the hard limb as I let out a painful cry and fell to the ground where I landed on my hands and knees with scowl. Scott jumped over me as he kicked his feet out in front of him and landed a kick to Cora's side that made her tumble to the ground. I climbed to my feet as Isaac rushed to my brother's side and I joined them quickly as Derek appeared on the other side of Cora. The Alpha let out a loud growl as his normally greenish eyes flashed scarlet red and Cora stilled as she stared at him for a second before fleeing from the scene at a sprint. I exchanged a look with Isaac as we both sighed in irritation before taking off after Cora with Derek following us and Scott stayed behind to check on the human girl who was probably freaking out. Cora's trail ended at the edge of a cliff as we all came to a stop and I looked over that edge at the town below.

"She's gone." I said breathlessly as I tried to even out heart rate from the adrenaline and Isaac nodded in agreement as he rested his arms on his knees while bending at the waist. I placed my hands on my head as I breathed heavily and Scott's phone rang behind us as Derek searched the ground for footprints.

"Scott! Thank god you answered! Boyd and Cora killed someone at the swimming pool." Stiles informed us in a rush through the phone line before my brother could even greet him and I mentally cringed as I squeezed my eyes shut.

"Are you sure?" Scott asked him in frustration as he turned around from us to give himself some sense of privacy and I felt someone put a hand on the small of my back as I looked up at Isaac with a small smile.

"Yep. Throat ripped out, blood everywhere. It's like the frickin' shining over here. Two little twin girls come out of the woods, start asking me to play with them forever and ever, I'm not gonna be surprised."

"Can you get a little closer to make sure it was them?"

"Make sure it was them? Scott, who else is going around ripping throats out?" Stiles asked in an exasperated squawk as Scott sighed slightly and I rested my folded on hand on Isaac's shoulder comfortably before leaning my chin on them as I watched my brother run a frustrated hand through his hair. "Yeah, okay, there's blood everywhere. His throat is ripped out. It looks like claw marks. I'm going to have nightmares for months thanks to you, Scott."

"Okay, thanks, bye!" Scott said quickly as he hung up the phone on his best friend and I sighed tiredly as I closed my eyes.

"This doesn't make any sense. The public pool is all the way on the other side of the woods. We haven't tracked them anywhere near there." Derek murmured thoughtfully to himself as he looked out over the cliff with a frown on his face and Scott turned to face us with a defeated expression.

"Derek, they killed someone." My brother reminded him softly as he stepped closer to the Alpha almost hesitantly but Derek continued to stare blankly out to the town below.

"How are they moving so fast?"

"Derek."

"But they can't be that fast on foot."

"They killed someone. Some totally innocent kid is dead... And it's our fault." He said loudly in a firm voice as he stared at Derek pointedly and the Alpha finally lifted his head up to meet my brother's dark brown eyes with a frown.

"It's my fault." Derek corrected him in a defeated voice as I straightened up from leaning on Isaac and narrowed my eyes at him as he avoided my gaze. I shook my head to myself as I rolled my eyes subtly because I knew that Derek wouldn't believe anyone who told him that what was happening wasn't his fault.

"We need help." I said with a small sigh as I bit my lower lip anxiously and wrapped my jacket tighter around my body when the wind picked up a little.

"We have Isaac now."

"She means real help." Scott told him firmly as he glanced at me before turning back to Derek and I pressed my lips together to stop myself from giggling at Isaac offended expression. "They're too fast for us, for all of us. They're too strong, too rabid."

"We'll catch them." I said nonchalantly with a shrug as though we captured rapid werewolves every day and Derek nodded in agreement as he crossed his arms over his broad chest.

"What happens if we do? We just gonna hold them down until the sun comes up?" Isaac asked us with slight amusement in his voice as he looked around at us in turn and

"Maybe it would be easier just to kill them." Derek said quietly with a sigh as he looked down at the ground in defeat and I felt anger flare up in my chest as I stalked across the small distance between us before slapping him over the back of the head. The Alpha's head shot up in surprise as he flinched away from me and I scowled at him as I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Killing them isn't the right thing to do. I am not killing Cora!" I told him pointedly with anger in my voice as I glared at him and he frowned at me with his greenish eyes flashing with something close to gratitude.

"What if it's the only thing to do? If we can't even catch them, what else do we do?" Isaac asked hesitantly as I spun around to glare at him for the suggestion and he held his hands up in surrender as he stepped backwards away from me.

"We find someone who knows what they're doing. Someone who knows how to hunt werewolves." Scott suggested calmly with a smirk on his lips as we all turned to look at him in confusion and his smirk widened as I quirked an eyebrow at him in question.

"Do you think this is gonna work?" Isaac asked curiously from the backseat of Derek's new SUV as we watched Scott silently approach Chris Argent as he loaded groceries into his Toyota RAV 4.

"Nope." Derek and I answered at the same time as we watched Chris spin around to point a gun at my brother's chest and I cringed in the passenger seat as I frowned in concern.

"Me neither." He agreed calmly as he leaned forward in between the two front seats and cleared his throat gently as he tilted his head slightly. "So your, uh... your sister... " he started to ask Derek suggestively as he turned his head to look at the Alpha and Derek raised an eyebrow at him silently as though asking if he was serious. "Sorry, yeah, it's... Its bad timing, I'm sorry. I'll ask later. Its fine." he said dismissively as he nodded sagely and I turned my head to look at him with an amused smile as Derek's face hardened. "Or never. Yeah, yeah, I'm good with never."

"Bold. Bold move, Lahey." I commented softly as I turned back to the front with a smirk on my lips and saw Scott climbing into Chris' car as he shot a look over his shoulder at us.

"What the hell is he doing?" Derek asked himself quietly as he narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the hunter's SUV and I frowned in agreement as I watched them drive out of the parking lot.

"Follow them." I ordered Derek calmly without taking my eyes off of taillights of the SUV and the Alpha silently followed my directions as we trailed after the others. We drove in tense silence as we followed from to the site of the murder at the public swimming pool and parked a few spots behind them when they stopped. An ambulance was parked just out the front of the doors as the police crowded around and a grieving mother and father are looked down at a body bag on a gurney. "Scott's appealing to his humanity."

"Do you think it's going to work?" Isaac asked me softly as he leaned forward to look out the front window and I nodded silently as leaned back in my seat with a small frown. Chris' car pulled out of the swimming pool parking lot as we started following them and we drove out to the preserve where we had last seen Cora. Derek, Isaac and I climbed out of the car as Scott and Chris jumped out of theirs and we all walked over to the edge of the forest.

"You're tracking them by print?" Chris asked us in his gruff voice as he nodded in greeting at me and I offered him a small smile as I walked over to lean against the tree nearest to the edge of the clearing.

"Trying to." Scott answered with a nod of his head as Isaac stood next to me with his arms crossed over his chest and I frowned at Scott as I tilted my head to the side.

"You guys were tracking by print? I was tracking by scent." I informed them all with a quirk of my eyebrow as they turned their attention towards me and Chris nodded in appreciation as he looked back over at the others.

"If you've been tracking by prints, well then, you've been wasting your time. There's only one creature on earth that can visually track footprints, and that's man. And if you're not trained like me, you have no idea that this print is Boyd's and these..." Chris started to explain as he crouched down in front of the footprints and I leaned forward slightly in interest to look at the ground.

"Are Cora's." Isaac guessed with a confident nod of his head and the veteran hunter looked up at him as he stood up from his crouch.

"Nope. They're yours. You trampled Cora's as soon as you walked over here. Listen, I know the three of you are focusing half your energy on resisting your own urges under the full moon, but that puts you at a severe disadvantage to Boyd and Cora, who have fully given in. They put the pedal to the floor where you three are barely hitting the speed limit."

"So what do we do?" Derek asked him almost desperately as he crossed his arms over his chest and I pushed myself off of the tree as I held my chin up with a blank expression on my face.

"Do what Sophie was and focus on your sense of smell. Actual wolves are known to track their prey by up to a hundred miles a day by scent. A trained hunter can use scent to track them. If the wind is with them, wolves can track a scent by a distance of two miles, which means we can draw them to us... Or into a trap. Full moon does give us one advantage. They'll have a higher heat signature, which makes them easier to spot with infrared." He said firmly as he reached into the duffel bag at his feet and pulled out a few sets of infrared goggles before tossing us each a pair.

"Thanks, but I've got my own." Derek said as he flashed his Alpha red eyes and Chris nodded at him as he threw the left over goggles back in the bag.

"Just remember, we're not hunting wild animals. Underneath those impulses are two intelligent human beings. Don't think they can't rely on that human side. It's suppressed, but it's there, reminding them how to mask their scent, how to cover their tracks, how to survive. When's the last time you saw your sister?"

"Not in years. We thought she died in the fire."

"Do you feel like you have a lock on her scent?" Chris asked Derek in the same business like tone of voice and Derek shook his head in answer with a frown on his face. "Scott, how confident are you in your skills?"

"Honestly, most of the time, I'm trying not to think about all the things I can smell." Scott answered honestly as he looked apologetically at the hunter and Chris nodded back at him before turning to face me with a questioning look.

"Oh, I'm awesome. I can hardly feel the full moon and I've had training with both Derek and Allison." I told him calmly with a shrug of my shoulders as I crossed my arms over my chest and the hunter nodded with a small approvingly smile at me.

"All right. The problem is when they breach the woods and hit the residential area. Once they're past the high school, they're right in the middle of beacon hills." Chris said sternly as he looked out over the cliff to the town below and we all walked over to stand next to him with varying expression of worry. "But there is an important difference to recognize. Wolves hunt for food. At a certain point, they get full. But Boyd and Cora are hunting for the pleasure of the kill, for some primal apex predatory satisfaction that comes from the ripping of warm bodies to bloody shreds. And who knows when that need gets satiated? Maybe we just need to contain them. There's no one in the school at night, is there?"

"You want to trap them inside?" I asked him curiously with an eyebrow quirked in question as I tilted my head to the side in consideration and he nodded in answer as he glanced at me from the corner of his eye.

"If there's somewhere with a strong enough door, no windows or access to the outside."

"What about the boiler room? It's just one big steel door."

"You're sure the school's empty?"

"It has to be. There can't be anyone there this late, right?" Scott said calmly but I could see the anxiety in his dark brown eyes as he looked over at me and I silently slipped my hand into his as I tried to offer him any reassurance I could.

"These are ultrasonic emitters. It's one of the tools we use to corral werewolves, pushing them into a direction we want them to run. Gives off a high-pitched frequency that only they can hear." Chris explained as he bent down to pick up a silver tool with a glass ring around the top and I frowned at him as he hit a button on the side before a loud, high pitch noise invaded my senses. I let out a surprised gasp as I hurried to cover my ears from my deafening sound and when the noise stopped sudden, I sighed in relief as I uncovered my ears.

"These are gonna drive them to the school?" Derek asked him quietly as he took the emitter from the hunter with a blank expression and Chris nodded in answer as he handed us each two emitters.

"And then it's up to you to get them into the basement."

"Does anyone else want to rethink the plan where we just, uh, kill 'em?" Isaac asked innocently as he looked at each of us with earnest steel blue coloured eyes and I scowled at him as I slapped him across the back of the head like I did to Derek earlier.

"It's going to work. It'll work." I said firmly as I took a deep breath and hoped like hell that this worked so that I didn't have to go through losing Cora all over again.

After we had distributed our emitters, Isaac and I decided that it would be safer to stay together when we got to the high school just in case we encountered Cora and Boyd again and I was beginning to think that luck was on our side as we stood just next to the parking lot waiting for Chris while Derek was inside the school. I froze when I heard the sound of footsteps approaching from behind accompanied by low growls and I tapped Isaac's arm subtly but he was already nodding in understanding.

"Oh, great." Isaac muttered to himself sarcastically as he rolled his steel blue eyes and I chuckled humourlessly as we slowly turned around to face a snarling pair of werewolves.

"You take Boyd, I'll take Cora?" I suggested quietly without taking my eyes off of the rabid werewolves in front of us and the Beta made an indignant scoffing sound in the back of his throat.

"Why do I get the guy that's half my size?"

"Do you really want to hit a girl?"

"I don't know. I kinda wanna hit you right now." He said jokingly as he flashed me a smirk without looking away from the two in front of us and I let out a breathy laugh as I nodded silently. Suddenly, the whole area was illuminated by a set of headlights as Chris' SUV pulled into the park spot and blasted its horn to scare Boyd and Cora towards the school. I sighed in relief that we wouldn't have to fight them as they started running towards the school where Derek was waiting to lead them to the boiler room. Scott run over to us as the other werewolves stopped just outside of the set of double doors and hesitated a moment before pulling up onto the roof.

"They're not going through the school. They're going over it." Scott commented quietly as he watched with wide eyes and I grimaced slightly as I shook my head. I blindly reached behind me to grab Isaac's hand before we started running closer to the school where Chris and Scott were standing and Derek approached from inside of the school with a determined frown on his face.

"The rear doors, someone has to get them open." Chris said sagely as he nodded towards the school and Derek immediately started running in the right direction without another word.

"Someone has to drive them inside."

"I'll go."

"No. I'm faster." Isaac stated calmly with a small smile as he squeezed my hand once before he pulled his from mine and I frowned at him as Scott glanced at him in concern.

"I'm coming with you. Scott, Derek and Chris have each other. I don't want you on your own." I said firmly with a shake of my head and Scott nodded in agreement as he reached over to squeeze my hand once. I sent a bright smile over to my brother and Chris before I grabbed Isaac' hand and started pulling him towards the back of the school where Cora and Boyd had disappeared to. We took off running as fast as we could in our human forms and when we go there, I noticed that someone was shooting flash bang arrows at the ground from the top of one of the buses. Boyd and Cora were driven inside of the school by the bright flashes of light and Isaac raced over to close the door behind them as I followed behind him. We both leaned against the door for a second in silence as we listened to the retreating footsteps of the werewolves inside and I sighed in relief as we both turned to see who it was that had helped us. At the top of one of the buses, Allison stood with her bow and arrow in her hand and a serious expression on her pretty face. I knew that she was only trying to right the wrong that she had caused early when she unknowingly let the two rabid werewolves excuse from the vault. Her dark brown eyes landed on us in surprise as she froze in shock and I let out a small chuckle as I smiled at her brightly to let her know that she was forgiven in my eyes. I raised one finger to my lips to silently assure her that I wouldn't tell anyone that she was there and she nodded back gratefully with a small smile before disappearing over the edge of the bus. I turned to look at Isaac with a mock-serious expression as he glanced at me in confusion as to why Allison was helping us and I pointed a finger at his chest gently. "You didn't see anything."

"No, I've gone temporarily blind."

"How many fingers am I holding up?" I asked him jokingly as I held up two of my fingers in front of his face with a smirk and he knocked my hand away with a chuckle as he started walking back towards the front of the school.

"Come on, we should go see if they need help." He said calmly as he reached his hand out for me to take with a small smile on his lips and I nodded in agreement as I took his offered hand without hesitation. We ran around to the front of the school together in silence and as soon as we entered the hallway we heard a loud series of growls coming from underneath our feet. We both stopped in shock as we stared in confusion at the floor until realisation hit me and I grabbed Isaac's arm tightly as I started pulling him down the empty.

"The boiler room!" I exclaimed in a panic we ran towards the stairwell that lead down to the boiler room and Isaac paused suddenly next to a row of windows with an awed expression on his face.

"The sun's coming up. Sophie! The sun's coming up!" he cheered happily as he picked me up in a surprise hug and spun me around in the empty hallway as I laughed giddily. He placed me gently back down on the ground with a laugh as I grinned at the genuine smile on his face instead of the smirk that seemed permanent lately. I shook my head at him slightly with a small smile as I grabbed his hand and started leading him to the stairwell down to the boiler room. We rushed down the stairs together and saw Scott pulling open the boiler room door but Derek nowhere in sight as we hurried to catch up to my brother. The growls had stopped echoing through the room as we hurried to the back of the boiler room and I froze in horror at the scene in front of me as I took in the unconscious forms of Cora and Boyd while Derek knelt between them covered in blood with his shirt torn to pieces.

"There's a teacher. I'll take care of her. Get them out of here." Derek instructed breathlessly as he slowly lifted his head to look at us with tired greenish eyes and the boys nodded in understanding as they went over to gently lift each of the unconscious werewolves. I watched them leave silently as Derek slowly tried to climb to his feet but stumbled slightly due to the blood loss and I hurried over to help him stand before he could fall.

"Are you sure you'll be okay? You've lost a lot of blood, Derek." I said softly as I glanced down at his blood matted shirt with a frown and he nodded as I let go of him slowly to see if he could stand on his own. "Alright. Be careful."

"I will." He assured me quietly as he nodded once with a small quirk of his lips and I looked at him doubtfully for a second before nodding back as I started to turn around. "Hey!" he called out to me when I was halfway out of the room and I turned back to face him with a quirked eyebrow as he offered a genuine smile that made him look than more handsome. "Thanks."

"Anytime."

PLEASE REVIEW!