AUTHOR'S NOTE: Avery's action outfit is up on Polyvore.
Fireflies
Stiles, Avery, and Peter try in vain to get back in contact with the boys but both their phones keep ringing until their voicemails pick up. Stiles grows frustrated and scared for his friend while Avery paces right beside him until she remembers the look of surprise that had passed over Peter's features.
Like the inquiring person she is, Avery asks what all that was about. Peter, of course, tries to throw her off with her every attempt to find out what was being said in the vault but when she reminds him that if they're going to work together, trust is a two-way street. Stiles doesn't hold his breath for Peter to answer because the man is always as vague as possible but he's pleasantly surprised when Peter answers Avery.
He tells them that the other person in the vault with Boyd turned out to be Cora. At Avery and Stiles' blank expressions, he goes into detail about who Cora is to himself and Derek (his niece and Derek's younger sister), and why the both of them had thought her to be dead. By the end of story time, Avery is shocked to her very core and completely disgusted by one Kate Argent.
She feels no remorse for the woman or the Argents when Peter tells her that he ripped out Kate's throat with his claws a while back when he was on his revenge kick.
..
..
A good half hour later, the door to Derek's loft slides open.
Derek walks in bloodied with a torn shirt, his face somber as an equally somber Isaac trails in behind him. Peter sits back while Stiles and Avery rush to Derek, the alpha sighing as he looks them in the eyes. "Go home."
"Excuse me?" Stiles says. "You get here after what we suspect was a brutal showdown and you tell us to go home?"
Isaac maneuvers out of the room to do only God knows what when Derek speaks again. "Erica's dead. Isaac and I just got finished burying her." Avery's shoulders slump, the Stilinski female knowing full well that losing a pack mate was horrible for whoever was in charge of them. "Boyd and Cora escaped so Isaac, Scott, and I are going to look for them before they make their way into the suburbs. You and Avery should be home where it's safe."
Stiles opens his mouth to say something else but Avery cuts him off. "I want in." She tells him. "While I'm not a good tracker, I can keep them distracted while you three work on taking them down."
Peter looks impressed at the human's willingness to help out, and Derek even looks like he is thinking about it, but Stiles puts his foot down. "No. No way. You heard them over the phone, Avery. They're savage right now. You're no match for any of them. Especially if they're strong enough for Derek to be worried."
Avery is ready to protest but Derek suddenly agrees with Stiles. "He's right." He tells her. "You and Stiles go home. Peter will follow you to make sure you get there."
Peter huffs but does as he's told, getting up to escort the Stilinski twins home but Avery really wants to help. With the look Stiles is giving her though, she knows he won't cave on this.
Sighing and moving to pack up her laptop, Avery grumbles on her way out with Stiles and Peter trailing her.
..
..
When Avery and Stiles get home, John is shocked to see them before midnight since it was the official start of their weekend. Stiles and Avery are too keyed up to even think about sleeping so while Avery goes to shower and change, Stiles queues up a marathon of movies and gets started on pulling snacks together.
When Avery finally comes downstairs towel-drying her hair, Stiles snorts at her choice of a white v-neck that easily falls to mid-thigh with an over-sized paw print on it that could easily be mistaken for a wolf's print and makes a comment about her black leather leggings. According to him, leggings should not be worn as pants but Avery doesn't seem care. They're home so she'll wear whatever she pleases.
She finds out that their Dad had went up to bed while she was in the shower so the Stilinski twins set up downstairs and wait for any updates from Scott while watching movies.
It wasn't until after three in the morning that John wakes them up, telling them to head up to their rooms and that he'd be back whenever he could. Apparently he had gotten called in and was heading out to the woods where a camper went missing. As soon as John left, Avery and Stiles scramble for their phones and attempt to get in contact with Scott but he wasn't picking up.
And moments later, Stiles gets a call from Lydia. Apparently she had been on her way to a twenty-four hour mini-mart to get something for a headache when she suddenly realized that she was at the city pool where she found a dead body. Avery had heard all about Peter's attack on Lydia and how she had never been the same after that so the siblings wasted no time in slipping on shoes and jackets. When Avery slid into black leather boots that laced up to mid-calf and a leather jacket, Stiles quickly wondered just how many pairs of boots and different leather jackets his sister actually had.
As they run outside, Stiles isn't too surprised to see Avery make a be-line for her motorcycle, it's engine roaring to life as she speeds away from the driveway. Stiles rolls his eyes at her dramatic exit before climbing into his jeep and making an exit just as dramatic as his sister.
By the time Avery makes it to Lydia, Lydia's a trembling mess as she keeps mumbling why is it always me? and wraps her friend up in a hug.
Seconds later, Stiles pulls up and hops out of his jeep. "Lydia?! Lydia, are you okay?" He asks as he runs up to them.
"I'm okay." She numbly answers and Avery pulls away from the hug. "That. Over there. Not okay." Her voice trembles when Avery and Stiles turn to see the body for the first time.
"Yeah. Alright. I'm gonna call our Dad." Stiles fumbles with his phone when he finally tears his eyes away from the scene.
"I already called 9-1-1." Lydia quickly blurts.
"You called the police before you called me?" Stiles looks mildly offended.
"I'm supposed to call you first when I find a dead body?!"
Stiles' eye most definitely twitches. "Yes!" He shouts at her which snaps Lydia out of her shock just enough to make a bitch face at him.
Moments later, they finally get Scott on the phone, Stiles having to put it on speaker so everyone can hear as he relays what they found to their werewolf friend.
"Are you sure?" Scott asks.
"Yep." Stiles glances at the body again. "Throat ripped out. Blood everywhere."
Lydia flinches as Stiles recalls the wounds but when Avery actually takes a look at the body, something doesn't seem right. She wants to get closer but she knows the closer she gets, the more likely it is she can tamper with evidence and that'd be a bad thing seeing as the police are already on their way.
"It's like the freaking Shining over here." Stiles fidgets as his gaze travels back and forth between nothing and the dead body that's only a few feet away. "If two little twin girls come out of the woods and start asking me to play with them forever and ever, I'm not going to be surprised."
Avery snorts in amusement but then bites her bottom lip when she realizes Stiles is glaring at her. This definitely wasn't the time to laugh.
"Can you get a little closer to make sure it was them?" Scott wonders.
Avery's nose crinkles, not wanting to blame Derek's newly found sister and pack mate but there's no-one else they can think of that would do this. Especially after the two savage wolves pulling a disappearing act on them.
"Make sure it was them? Scott, who else do you think is going around ripping throats out?"
"Please, just do it."
Stiles sighs as he glances around, dropping his phone to his side as he does what he was told. Getting an up close and personal look, Stiles sees something and gets a bit closer. Avery just knows he found something but he doesn't seem to want to share and then Stiles confirms that the guy's throat does appear to be ripped out.
The trio stand in silence as they wait for the police to get there to the crime scene when Stiles' phone beeps with an alert. Scott texted him letting him know that they were getting help from a professional and seeking out Chris Argent, Allison's father. As Stiles and Lydia weigh the pros and cons of having the help of a Hunter, Avery can't help but feel that she should be out there helping wrangle up the wolves. While her brother and friend are in deep discussion, Avery makes a decision and slinks off towards her bike. She knows Stiles is going to be pissed when he hears her bike roar to life but there are lives on the line. She needs to help.
The second her bike roars to life, she shifts into gear and peels out of the parking lot, heading for home where she needs to pick up a few necessities. By the time she gets home, Stiles and Lydia have both blown up her phone. Ignoring everything they've said, she shoots off a group text message to the both of them.
'I have to do something. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Stiles, Dad will be busy with the missing camper so he won't show up there. If he gets home before I do, cover for me. Tell him I'm spending the night at Lydia's because she didn't want to be alone. And Lydia, if my Dad calls you, lie your ass off. I'll update you soon.'
Avery checks the time, finding out it's just after four and turns her phone off. She doesn't need any distractions and with the werewolves' sensitive hearing, she doesn't need them to find her because they heard the vibrations of her phone.
She bounds up to her room and straight to her closet, pushing aside boxes on the top shelf and reaches for the back. Her hand hits the quiver of arrows first and she immediately pulls those down and tosses them on her bed. She realizes that each of these arrows have a glass bulb situated behind it's point and are filled with liquefied vervain. The bulbs are meant to explode once they're embedded in it's target, which makes great for weakening a vampire so while the vervain is harmless to the wolves, the arrows will still hurt them. And since she's on a time crunch, she has no time to exchange out the arrows.
A metal lock box comes down next and while she tosses that on her bed, she turns around inside her closet and reaches up above the door where her bow is hanging on the small piece of wall that's out of view.
She walks up to her bed, slinging the quiver of arrows and bow across her back before pulling on a silver chain from around her neck and pulling a small key from the inside of her shirt. She had always wore it when she wasn't dressing up for an event, and John and Stiles always thought it was a fashion statement. Quickly unlocking the box, she pulls out two daggers, each dagger's blade inscribed with ancient runes and symbols that keep a supernatural being from healing right away.
It was always a good idea to keep a witch as a best friend.
Without wasting any more time, she tosses the lock box back into her closet before shoving the two daggers into her boots. She quickly makes her way back outside, hops on her bike and drives away. She doesn't know where she's going and she doesn't want to ask Scott what the plan is because she knows he'll send her back home.
She drives through the suburbs, keeping an eye out for anything unusual before heading for the Preserve. She knows her Dad is probably still out there so she keeps her distance while still managing to make sure no wolves are around. She drives around the town for a while, never managing to run into anything or anyone and parks out by the school. Minutes into parking and listening for any noises, a car pulls up to the school and heads towards the back where the buses are always parked. She realizes that the car is Allison's, so wondering what the female is up to, she abandons her bike where it's out of sight and jogs towards where Allison was seen heading to.
As Avery sneaks up behind the buses and peers around one, she sees Allison pulling out a bow of her own from the trunk of her car. Grinning mischievously, Avery takes off her bow and pulls an arrow out, setting it up before stepping out from the dark.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Allison jumps at her words, hands working to set an arrow of her own and pointing it at Avery. When she sees who it is, she sighs and lets her arms fall. "Avery? What are you doing?"
"I asked you first."
Allison's gaze travels to the arrow still pointed at her before her lips twitch. "I'm here to help. I figured out that my Dad and the others were herding Boyd and the girl here so I'm going to make sure the plan goes according to."
At that, Avery's bow and arrow lowers. "Good. 'Cause I'm here for the same thing only I didn't know this is where they were headed."
Allison grins and gestures her over. "You want to trade in some of your arrows? I'm using flash-bang so it'll just mess with their eyesight. Yours look kind of lethal."
Avery snorts and takes Allison up on the offer, walking over to the opened trunk and taking off her quiver. "Thanks. These are equipped for vampires, anyway." She gestures the glass bulb. "These break in their bodies and the vervain burns them. It'll weaken them in a fight." She explains. "They're the first ones I came across in my closet."
"Ohh, handy and clever." Allison picks one up to examine it as Avery switches them out. "Have you ever thought about putting wolfsbane in them?"
"Liquefied wolfsbane." Avery smirks. "Wolves hate it but I'm sad to say I left those in New Orleans."
Allison chuckles and closes the trunk as she and Avery lean against the side of her car. "So you're, uh, a Hunter, huh? How long have you been doing this?"
Allison misses the way Avery rolls her eyes over a certain word but Avery politely corrects her. "I'm a soldier of sorts. Not a Hunter. I don't seek anyone out- today is a first for me- but I protect people nonetheless." Allison takes Avery's explanation with a nod and smile. "What about you? I didn't know you were a Hunter until recently."
"Yeah. Family business." Allison grimaces. "I've made some good choices and some very bad ones quite recently. I'm just trying to make up for that now, I guess."
Avery subtly sighs in relief at Allison's honesty and the two girls lapse into a silence after that. They both have quivers of arrows slung across their backs as they listen for anything out of the ordinary. After what seems like forever, growls and snarls can be heard followed by the honking of a car horn.
"We need to get higher up if we want to catch them off guard. We don't want them seeing us at ground level." Allison says.
Both girls look around for a higher up and Avery's gaze settles on the buses. "Those high enough?"
Allison nods and quickly races after Avery who very easily gets the door to a bus pried open. They run towards the end of the bus where Avery opens the emergency hatch to the roof. Each girl easily hoists themselves up, closing the hatch and spreading out to either side of the bus.
The growls suddenly come from up above and both girls ready their bows and arrows. They keep their eyes peeled for the rooftop and the second Boyd and Cora come into view and drop to the ground, Allison and Avery let their arrows fly. They aim for the ground by their feet, the flash-bangs confusing and momentarily stunning the werewolves in place. Arrow after arrow whistles by the wolves and the second Boyd and Cora realize what's going on and try to escape, the arrows start to hit the wall on either side of them to keep them in place.
The wolves finally find an open door, taking the opportunity to run inside and get away from the arrows when Isaac runs into view, slamming the door shut and latching it closed. Avery and Allison share a brief look of triumph before Allison winks at her and slides down the sloped windshield of the bus, and out of view. Isaac then catches Avery's gaze, eyes wide with shock before he smirks as she curtsies atop the roof of the bus.
"And Derek didn't want my help." Avery grins as she walks the length of the bus towards the windshield, sliding down and landing next to Isaac who walked alongside her at ground level. "We totally owned those wolves."
"That was, uh, impressive." Isaac tells her. "But now we got to check the front to make sure they didn't get out and that Derek actually got them down to the boiler room."
Avery nods and the two race for the front of the school just as a lean man with salt and pepper stubble comes out, taser prod in hand. He looks to Isaac, ready to say something but when his gaze lands on Avery, he goes with something else. "New friend?"
"Stiles' long lost twin, actually." She introduces herself. "I take it your Allison's father?"
"I am." He confirms, his gaze traveling to the bow in her hands. He quirks an eyebrow at her before looking back at Isaac. "Scott and Derek got them in the boiler room. My job here is done."
Isaac and Avery both nod at him, standing a few feet apart as they watch Chris get into his vehicle and drive away. As soon as Chris is out of sight, the duo don't even have a moment to relax. Loud roars echo throughout the night, followed by softer yet still menacing growls but Avery knows it's bad when Isaac tenses. They take one look at each other before the both of them are bolting into the school. Avery follows after Isaac since she's not as familiar with the school as he is and nearly crashes into his back when he skids to a stop. "Scott?" He calls out, flinching back when the sunlight hits him in the eyes. "The suns come up." He breathes lowly, looking to Avery before slowly smiling. "Scott! The suns coming up!" He yells and then they're both running again.
When Isaac opens the door that leads to the boiler room, they see Scott ripping open the actual boiler room door and rushing inside. Isaac doesn't say anything as he scurries down the stairs and Avery is quick to follow. She comes to a stop right behind Scott and Isaac, peering in between them at a battered and worn down Derek whose shirt is bloodied and ripped to shreds.
He looks up, eyes darting to all three of them before sighing, "There's a teacher. I'll take care of her." He pants heavily and then gestures to Boyd and Cora who are out cold on the ground at either side of him. "Get them out of here."
Scott looks to Isaac and finally notices that Avery is there but with a shake of her head, he lets it go for now as he and Isaac move forward. Scott takes Boyd and Isaac takes Cora, both of them getting the tired out wolves out of there and to Derek's car.
Avery slowly steps forward as Derek climbs to his feet and offers him a small smile. "I thought I told you to go home." He says.
"And I thought I told you I could help." She throws back. "Come on, lead me to the teacher so I can bring her out."
"I said that I'd-"
"-take care of her?" Avery muses before she picks at his shirt. "Sorry, Derek, but all you're going to do is scare her with all the blood and rips to your tee. It's better if I bring her out and then you can explain. Somewhat."
If he wasn't so tired and worn down, Avery was sure that Derek would be glaring. Instead, he picks the bow out of her hands. "Don't want her thinking you're going to shoot her, do you?"
Avery's lips twitch before she concedes, letting Derek take her bow before offering up her quiver of arrows as well. As Derek leads her to a storage unit in the back, Avery shrugs out of her leather jacket and hands it to him to hold. He nods to a fence-like door and Avery opens it up, stepping cautiously inside.
"Ms. Whoever-Is-In-Here, it's okay! You can come out now." A head peeks around one of the shelves and as Avery holds up her hands in a surrendering manner, she realizes is Ms. Blake as the teacher slowly crouches into view. "Hey, Ms. B. It's fine. It's all over."
"M-Ms. Stilinski?" Ms. Blake stutters. "What are-.. what happened?"
Avery offers her hand to the teacher, pulling Ms. Blake so she's standing on her own two feet. "It's a long story. Really." Avery tells her as she leads the trembling teacher out of the supply room. "And I kind of don't think you'd believe me anyway."
The second they get out of the supply room, Ms. Blake freezes when her eyes land on Derek. "W-who's he?"
Avery follows her gaze, the bloodied and worn out alpha staring at them. "Him? That's Derek. Your night in shining armor." She teases.
Ms. Blake's gaze flickers between Derek and Avery before finally staying on Derek as she offers him a shaky smile. "T-thank you."
He only nods in response, slinking further into the shadows and Avery takes that as her cue to get Ms. Blake out of the boiler room and to her car so she can finally go home.
Just when she thinks she can finally take a deep breath, Scott runs up to her after Ms. Blake leaves the parking lot. "We need to go. Stiles said to meet him at the hospital." Eyes wide, Avery's heart starts to race. "Calm down!" Scott quickly mutters. "He's fine. Mostly. But he says he has vital information that we need to hear."
Her heart doesn't stop racing and before Scott can say anything else, she's running. Running towards the place she abandoned her bike at with Scott running after her. "My bike. You drive." She tells him once they reach it.
Even though the situation seems kind of dire, Scott beams as he eagerly climbs onto the bike and waits for Avery to climb on behind him before starting the engine and racing towards the Hospital.
..
..
..
When Scott and Avery make it the hospital, Ms. McCall intercepts them and leads them to the morgue. Throughout the entire trip there, she says nothing and sighs sadly when she sees Stiles.
Scott and Avery both share stunned looks at how calm and eerily quiet Stiles is being but when they glance at what he's staring at, they realize it's a body.
Taking a few steps forward, they realize that it's not only a body, but Heather. The girl whose party they had all attended.
Scott and Avery move so that they're standing on either side of Stiles, Scott exhaling sadly and patting his friend on the back while Avery lays her head on Stiles' shoulder. Stiles suddenly leans forward, pulling the sheet up and over to hide Heather's face and slit throat from view.
"So Boyd and Cora might not have killed anyone?" Scott breaks the silence when he realizes it was a slit throat and not a ripped out one.
Stiles sighs and hangs his head. "I wish they did."
"Why?"
"Well I'm not exactly sure yet." Stiles says as he keeps his gaze locked on Heather's covered body. "But the other girl who was out in the woods- Emily.. eventually they're going to find her. She's one of them- Emily. Heather. The guy Lydia found at the pool. All three were virgins." And wow, she did not see this coming. "They're all going to have the same three injuries- strangled, throats slashed, head bashed in. It's called a three-fold death."
"So if these aren't random killings, what are they?" Scott wonders aloud.
Avery gulps, picking her head up from Stiles' shoulder as she and her twin share a brief look of understanding. Avery had never seen anything like this but she had read about it and now, she couldn't believe it was actually happening.
"Sacrifices. Human sacrifices."
Scott gapes at his best friend and Avery hugs herself as she stares down at the bodies.
Shit just got very real.
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