Notes: The color of a werewolves eyes does not seem public knowledge in terms of Teen Wolf but I went very Supernatural with this stuff and figured, in terms of research Ally and Charlie had done, finding out that sort of stuff could be capable in lore, or myths and etc. Sorry this took me so long to upload! Enjoy ;)

Chapter 12: Retribution

It's going to start raining soon; he can feel it in his bones, down to the porous stitch work interlacing his body together. There's lightening flashing in the sky, through the trees, but thunder never follows. He figures it must be heat lightening but there's this moisture to the air around him, hugging his skin, kissing his pores like dew. The mugginess reminds him of that conversation with Ally down by the lake, when she mentioned how it sometimes felt like there was this dome over the woods, cocooning in heat and humidity.

He glances over at Scott as they make their way through the woods, leaving their friends behind in search for the Campbell cabin, hoping to run into Ally and Charlie to try and talk them through dropping their fruitless vendetta. He understands the need for revenge no matter how wrong it actually is to try and take it. Isaac had blamed his father for his mother's death, just like Mr. Lahey had blamed Isaac for the same thing; a deep seeded anger planted inside them both but only one of them succeeding in feeding that black hole suctioning in organs and muscles from the center of their chests.

But revenge can only go so far, it is a burning type of rage that's not easily extinguished. It can eat through other emotions, disintegrate through bones and muscles, through sympathy and empathy, it can infect and consume until there's nothing left but a hunger that's insatiable.

A few drops of rain start falling as Isaac and Scott wander past a collection of large trees to see the Campbell cabin, right where Stiles had told them it would be. Apparently using their werewolf senses to scope it out themselves wasn't good enough, if Stiles wasn't allowed to come than he had to help somehow. His solution was a map and a very pointed set of directions. Isaac sticks his hands in his pockets as he slowly approaches the cabin with Scott at his side, keeping a sharp eye out for any yellow plants or signs of Charlie or Ally.

The cabin is smaller framed and has a dark, cherry wood paneling that can use a fresh coat of wood protector against the elements. It's chipped, worn down, tired looking and dark shadows cast by the moon gives it the impression that it's drooping forward, like a dying weeping willow tree.

Both of them are cautious, taking careful slow steps as they make their way onto the porch, not sure as to what or who they might find inside. Scott looks up at Isaac as he presses on the front door, which slides open easily with a long creak. When nothing happens, when no gunshots go off or arrows fly through the air, the shorter wolf shrugs at him and moves forward into the house, Isaac following close behind.

The tall ceiling and the run down state of the walls and frame reminds him of the Hale house as they slowly move to the right of the front door into the first room that catches their eye. While the cabin wasn't engulfed in fire or anything the wood is dark like charcoal and from the amount of dust gathering on covered furniture and other surfaces it's obvious that this place has been abandoned without proper care for quite some time now.

The living room is a haphazard mess, there are boxes everywhere, some stacked on top of one another to form towers to the point where the space looks like a disorganized cityscape. He moves towards the back wall with Scott where he can see a ton of papers clipped, stapled and taped to the walls, nearly covering the entire long expanse and the pale blue paint that's chipping.

"What is this?" Isaac asks, reaching forward to tug on a piece of paper that's gently flapping in a breeze brought in from a cracked window to his left.

Scott shrugs his shoulder and moves toward Isaac as he looks at the wall. "I don't know."

It sort of reminds him of a suspect wall that he's seen in Mr. Stilinski's office before or on any detective show on TV. He leans closer to get a better look at what's tacked to the wall, some papers overlapping others, some bent and ripped and yellowed from time. Notes on lycanthropy, a large map hidden with post-it notes and tacks, a calendar with lunar cycles scribbled into the dated boxes, newspaper clippings of animal attacks…

"Scott, I think this is some sort of information wall…"

The other takes down a tacked picture to look at it. "You mean like for hunters to track werewolves and stuff?"

Scott turns the picture over to look on the back and Isaac nods softly before glancing over at the writing that's found there. Elissa and Mark Campbell with Rick Sheller, 2009

"That's the lake." Isaac says, pointing to the scenery behind the three figures as Scott turns the picture back over. "Rick must be a family friend or something."

Scott sighs, tapping the photograph off the tips of his fingers. "I wish this wasn't so personal."

"How can it not be?" He moves past him to glance out the window but there's no sign of anyone but them. "From what Stiles told us, the Campbells crashed their car and were still alive. A werewolf, maybe a newly bitten one, sees them as an easy kill, yanks them out, finishes them off and then puts them back like the crash did the job in the first place." Isaac runs a few fingers through his curls as he looks back at Scott. "If you ask me that would feel pretty personal."

"I still don't understand why a werewolf would place them back into the car and make it look like some sort of accident."

Isaac sighs. "I don't know…guilt maybe?" He licks his lips and clicks his tongue off the roof of his mouth before continuing with his thought. "And I hate to say it but…Ally and Charlie are sort of dignified with wanting to take revenge."

The look Scott gives him makes him want to crawl into a hole but he doesn't feel wrong about his opinion. The shorter turns to face him and approaches where he's standing at the window, confusion present on his face and in his scent as to why Isaac would think that. He doesn't know where Isaac's coming from because Scott's not the type of person to give any sort of merit to revenge. He's never needed it and Isaac thinks that even if something were to happen to his mother at the hands of another it still wouldn't be an option he'd consider. Revenge is below him and he won't let it wrap around him in a vice like grip that makes him feel like he has no other choice.

But Isaac; Isaac understands the allure of revenge all too much.

"Revenge doesn't solve anything," Scott tells him, speaking slowly as if to a child. "Especially when they're using it to kill innocent people!"

He swallows, looking away from him a moment because he hates how disappointed Scott sounds in him. "That's why I said 'sort of'."

Scott slowly reaches out and touches his hand, like he's not sure if he should or not. Isaac lets him even though he doesn't necessarily welcome the tentative fingers pressing against his skin or the lifelines of his palm. He trusts Scott and of course his life before the bite is no mystery to the other but he still feels…guarded every time he has to talk about his past and his father. Its part of him that he just wants to keep hidden away, like his father slamming the lid of the freezer shut, locked, the memories and the pain concealed behind screams and bruises that have long since healed. He doesn't want Scott to define him through all the shit he's been through because he's supposed to be different now even though he's constantly reminded of something he wants to bury.

"I know you think you understand where they're coming from but—"

Isaac shakes his head and cuts him off because, "I do." He snaps, swallowing down the venom in his voice because it's not meant for Scott. "I do understand." He says, more calmly.

Scott raises his eyebrows at him, eyes searching troubled blue ones as his fingers slide over Isaac's knuckles. He nods his head, encouraging him to continue because he realizes he might be wrong.

"So many times I was locked in that freezer and all I could think about was getting out of there and making my dad pay for what he was doing to me." He swallows thickly and looks down; so many times he had the chance to do something and never did.

No matter how often he thought about it while falling asleep with broken bones or bloodied fingers; he had been too weak to do something about it. But sometimes, sometimes when that same rage comes back after one of his nightmares he forgets how much he still loves his dad and remembers how the prospect of revenge tastes like blood in his mouth.

"For what he did to my mom." He whispers, looking away from Scott, nearly choking on the thick waves of sympathy.

The other boy squeezes his hand hard. "I know."

And maybe Scott does understand revenge, maybe he understands the fleeting thought of it when he recalls how his dad left his mom and how unbearably heartbroken she had been to the point where he wasn't sure if she could pick up the pieces.

Isaac nods, clearing his throat, a small amount of blush blotching his cheeks from being so open. He's never really talked about his mom before; his father ironically is a much easier topic.

"I'm just saying that while it might not be right, if you have the means to do it then revenge is a hard thing to pass up."

And to his surprise Scott doesn't try to disagree.

0o0o0o0o0

They finish scoping out the first floor when Scott suggests they try and find them by scent. Isaac doesn't think it's that bad of an idea, he remembers Ally's scent and the strong aroma of her perfume so it shouldn't be too difficult if they're still close or have passed by here recently. Not to mention Allison's flesh wound on Charlie from his brush in from her crossbow; he'll smell like blood more than anything else and that overwhelming scent will help their wolves track immensely. They're about to head outside when an echoing thud sounds from bellow them. Scott looks up at Isaac to make sure he's heard it too and he nods softly before mouthing to him 'basement?'.

Scott tells him to stay where he is before he disappears to check it out and even though Isaac wants to follow him he knows waiting it out here is probably the best course of action. If Ally or Charlie makes it past Scott, he's here to counter them and besides, that noise could turn out to be nothing. A rat (a very large rat) or something as simple as a piece of the ceiling meeting the floor. He glances up at the crumbling plaster above him; it's not like that isn't a legit concern.

His attention is diverted when he hears another noise, softer this time, coming from his right. He moves his way down the hall and into a kitchen; the room is bathed in darkness, not only physically but also because this house hasn't had human warmth in a long time. The family that used to live here doesn't stain the walls with light anymore, with emotions and memories and love. There are thick curtains covering the windows, the dark makes him feel enclosed, he can at least sense that just like the other rooms appliances are covered with plastic and a thick layer of filth covers everything.

For a moment he can't smell anything but dust and then it hits him like it's come out of nowhere, a strong acidic monsoon of metallic—blood. He whirls around but it's too late, a close range explosion goes off against his chest and the force of it is enough to knock him back off his feet and through the paneled glass kitchen door. He lands hard against dirt and grass, vaguely aware that he's outside now, the night sky and the bright moon speckling against the blood coating his chest. His ears are ringing and glass is digging into what feels like every part of his body.

The pain is enough to get him to shift and he growls as his eyes turn gold, claws digging into the earth.

Charlie steps out through the jagged hole in the door that he's made with the impact of his body and sneers at him, cocking his gun. "Knew you'd show us your true face eventually." Isaac sits up as fast as he can and launches himself forward, trying to give him less time to react.

For a human, Charlie's reflexes are impressively fast. He turns his rifle so that the butt of his shotgun slams into the side of Isaac's face, snapping his head to the right. His wounds are healing quickly, which would be great except that those shotgun pellets are wedged into his body, but at least there doesn't seem to be any wolfsbane coursing through his system.

Not yet, anyways.

Isaac retaliates quickly, his one arm trying to knock the gun out of his hands while his other slashes three long cuts down Charlie's cheek. He howls in pain and it's just enough to distract him that Isaac knocks his feet out from under him, kicks the rifle from his hands and grabs him by his shirt to haul him up. He snarls into his face, seeing red as he raises his claws to rip open the shoulder wound that's stitched up from the crossbow arrow. The wolf is howling in his chest for carnage and he's finding the last thing he seems to care about now is talking this whole thing out.

But before Isaac can bring his hand down a sharp pain radiates from his side and he turns to see Ally standing next to him, breathing heavily, her fingers slick with his blood as she pulls the knife out of his side. His body feels the effects before he realizes what's happening, his knees go weak and he slumps onto the grass, his hand rushing to his side as his fingers grow numb.

"Wolfsbane." He spits as Charlie stands, laughing, blood leaking into his mouth thanks to the cuts on his face from Isaac's claws.

"Yeah, not so powerful now, are you?" He asks him.

He feels dizzy as his fingers press into his side where Ally stabbed him, his vision starts to swirl and he blinks as his wolf whines and dissipates, his human nails returning as his eyes bleed blue and his canines recede. Isaac tries to stand but Charlie kicks him hard against his ribs and he falls back into the grass, his head smacking against the dirt. His ears ring again, sounds blurring together as he squeezes his eyes shut. He can feel the wolfsbane from the blade pulse through his system with every pump of his heart, every intake of breath, it's weakening him, it's preventing him from healing and his cuts start to burn as a headache pounds in his temples.

"Now, we've been sort of lazy with hunting you. I admit, it hasn't been our finest kill." Charlie walks around him as Ally stands to the side, watching him carefully. Her hands are shaking. "We forgot to reload our supply of wolfsbane bullets so we're limited but…as you can see, you shouldn't worry, we still have soaked arrows and dipped knives."

"Ally, you don't have to this." Isaac says, his voice growing stronger he looks over at her.

She opens her mouth to say something but Charlie is quick to reply. "She's not doing anything she doesn't want to do." He argues, his voice is thick with anger that chills him to his bone. His tone somehow reminds him of his father. "Your kind ruined our lives."

Isaac swallows and looks up at him, wincing as his side burns against his fingers. Charlie bends down and bunches Isaac's shirt between his fingers and yanks him up, he struggles to find the energy in himself to fight him off but his limbs feel like cinder blocks, his stomach sick as his vision swims again.

"You know one thing I've learned about werewolves?" Charlie swallows as he cocks his shotgun and positions it underneath Isaac's chin. "That it never pays off to be a lone wolf."

"Who says Isaac is alone?"

Relief pools in his chest cavity at the sound of Scott's voice and Charlie lets go of his shirt, letting him slump to the ground as he turns to see another wolf transformation. Scott growls and bares his teeth and Isaac barely has enough time to relish in the pure shock on Charlie's face at there being two werewolves when he only prepared for one before Scott is pouncing on him.

Everything is moving far too fast and he's not sure if that has to do with the wolfsbane coursing through his system or not…but the minute Scott tackles Charlie into the ground, Isaac uses all of his strength to yank himself up and hurl himself at Ally's shins. His movements are jerky and his limbs are heavy but he manages to knock her to the ground. He tries to overpower her just so he can talk without the likely prospect of him being stabbed again, it's not like he actually wants to hurt her, but she's clawing at his clothes and slamming her palms into his chest as he tries to pin her down.

He hears gunshots going off again, this time from a handgun, and he guesses he shouldn't be surprised that both of them are carrying a lot more than shotguns and dipped knives. He glances over at Scott just to make sure he's alright, the shorter wolf is far faster than he is and he's dodging the shots as he starts to back Charlie into a corner.

Isaac grabs Ally's wrists. "Ally, please, I just want to—" But she cuts him off by kicking him where it hurts, right in his side wound that's bleeding profusely from his lack of healing. He yelps in pain, thrown off balance and back onto the ground, Ally scrambling to stand.

It all comes to a screeching halt when Ally pulls a gun out from the back waistband of her jeans and cocks it at him, screaming for Scott to stop. And he does—Charlie is weaponless and pinned to the side of the cabin, feet above the ground, Scott's hand around his throat as the boy kicks his legs and claws at the vice like grip.

"Put him down," Ally demands, Scott glancing at Isaac before looking back at her. Her voice is shaking as she shoots a bullet into the ground next to Isaac, making everyone jump. "Now!" She screams and as if the warning shot isn't enough Isaac nods his head softly at Scott, telling him its okay.

Scott looks like he doesn't know what to do; he has a leverage holding on to Charlie and if he lets him go he'll have nothing. But Charlie smirks, chokes out a reply around the hold on his throat. "Those are wolfsbane bullets werewolf, I'd listen to her."

He swallows and slowly lowers Charlie to the ground, the human sputtering and coughing as the grip disappears. Isaac turns onto his back, his legs bent as he looks up at Ally, swallowing the taste of blood in his mouth. His heart starts pounding hard in his chest, he knows Scott can hear it, a low whine rumbling in his throat as his fingers flex with wanting to do something.

"Finish him." Charlie demands, motioning to Isaac on the ground. "Do it, Ally. Now."

Ally looks down at Isaac and lets out a shaky breath, squeezing the gun hard. He can hear the upbeat of her pulse, her shallow breathing, her conflicted eyes looking over his broken form before her. There's no rage there like before when he talked to her by the lake, there's only hurt, a deep seeded ache in the center of her chest. She doesn't want to do this but she doesn't not want to do it either at the same time. Isaac understands the confliction; he understands the hesitation and twisted hope that the pain might go away if she kills just one more werewolf.

He leans up slightly and she repositions the gun at his head, making him freeze.

"Don't!" Scott's voice cuts through the air. He's shifted back to human form, taking a step forward like he might try and do something regardless of Charlie moving to block his path. "Please, Ally, don't do this."

The amount of emotion in his voice is like a key sliding into a locked door and realization lights up Charlie's face as he looks between Isaac and Scott. "Well, what do we have here?" He asks. "Mates." He smiles but it's malicious and a harsh laugh leaves his lips. "How touching."

Isaac connects eyes with Scott for a brief moment before looking back up at Ally. Charlie shoves Scott forward, closer to where Ally is and kicks Isaac hard in his ribs again. Isaac buckles and turns onto his side, his entire body throbbing with a white hot pain he's never felt before, not even when he was human and his father created cuts, bruises and broken bones. His skin and body a map of suffering and fear.

Scott flinches, his face screwed up in a cross between anger and distress, the soft whimpers leaving Isaac's lips literally hurting him as they reach Scott's ears. He's tired of Charlie using people for his own volitions; he's using Isaac to hurt Scott and he's using his rage to coerce Ally into carrying out retribution with him.

Charlie leans closer to Scott, whispers next to his ear, his voice thick with venom.

"Werewolves took away our parents, now you're going to know what it feels like to have someone you love ripped away from you." He's enjoying this, at least a part of him is. While it has everything to do with seeking revenge for his parents Charlie doesn't hate the pain that he can inflict on others because it takes away from his own.

Isaac's had enough; he can't take the look on Scott's face anymore or the upbeat tempos of everyone's heart. He has to do something before he ends up with a wolfsbane bullet wedged between his eyes.

"I know you don't know the wolf that got away with killing your parents—" He starts but Charlie kicks him again, this time where Ally has stabbed him and the pain is so overpowering that he silently screams into the dirt, his blood mixing with the grass and earth.

"You don't know anything." Charlie hisses.

"Ally, you've seen the color of Isaac's eyes," Scott points out, speaking quickly before Charlie can intervene. He remembers the lycanthropy research lining the walls of the living room in the cabin. "You know that he's innocent."

Charlie spits blood when he talks. "No such animal."

"He's never hurt anyone."

For a minute, Isaac can see that Scott's words are really getting to her; the gun lowers ever so slightly as she looks down at him and her heartbeat starts to slow. Charlie shakes his head as Isaac slowly turns onto his back again, not having enough energy to even hold himself up on his elbows this time, his breathing heavy and ragged as his fingers tremble against his bloodied side.

"Which doesn't mean that he won't." Charlie counters, leaning closer to Ally and repositioning her gun to aim at Isaac's head. He shakes his head as he glares at Scott before looking down at Isaac bleeding by his feet.

"We knew the wolf that killed our parents." Ally says, her voice soft and nearly blending into the passing breeze. "My parents and…they-they were all friends."

Isaac swallows and looks at the gun before taking in Ally's features. Her pale skin and angled cheekbones are covered from the shadows of the trees, the light pink blush that's usually on her cheeks has drained from her face and her green eyes are swimming with confusion and heartache. If they knew the werewolf that killed their parents then… why are they doing all of this?

"He was a family friend. We even called him our Uncle Rick…" She laughs but the sound is broken, like the noise of stepping on glass. The amount of heartache in her voice almost takes the air out of his lungs; it's enough that the sensation nearly overtakes the physical pain pulsing throughout his nerves.

He swallows thickly and recalls that picture Scott took off the wall, the picture of their parents and someone named Rick Sheller. It explains as to why that photograph was even on the wall in the first place, it's what started them on this hunt that apparently is never sated.

His fingers curl into his side a moment, some of the blood drying and sticking to his skin and the fabric of his clothes. Isaac remembers that when he passed out from this wolfsbane that Scott said he hit his head and maybe that's why it worked its way out of his body. He's almost hoping that he bleeds enough through the wound in his side that the wolfsbane will leave his system. He's starting to get the feeling back into his fingers and limbs but it's not enough, his vision is still blurred and a headache is threatening to rip his skull in half.

"See our parents knew Rick's secret, tried to control him during the full moons." Charlie says and the anger he's so used to hearing in his voice fades for a fraction of a second and he can hear the same pain that was in Ally's voice, the same heartache, the same despair. "They thought they could help him but he turned on them."

The seemingly separate dots start to connect together in a pattern in the back of Isaac's mind. Rick couldn't control himself during the full moon, animalistic and primal urges taking control over anything else—he attacked Charlie and Ally's parents, drove them to get away as quick as they could. In their haste they crashed their car and Rick had found them, doing what his wolf knew how to do best…and only felt regret after he had finished. That's why the Campbell's had been placed back into their car and that's why Ally was talking to him back at Stiles' cabin like she'd know exactly what to do to the person who was responsible for killing her parents.

"You killed him." Isaac says softly, moving to lean on his one elbow as he looked into Ally's eyes. There's guilt there, he can smell it, it seeps into his pores and claws at his ribcage.

"Of course we killed him." Charlie snaps, seeming to knock Ally out of her wounded expression. She swallows and squeezes the gun in her hands again; the metal has to be digging into sore skin at this point. "Our parents should have made the same damn decision. Rick was dangerous and you're no different. You'll turn on people you care about too; your family, your friends it's only a matter of time."

He clamps his mouth closed about his parents not even being in that equation…but the comment about his friends, about the people he cares about? That's not exactly a far stretch. When he thinks about what Charlie is trying to say to convince Ally's trigger finger he almost understands what he's trying to point out. Isaac thinks Allison might actually understand where Charlie's coming from, seeing as how she was trying to convince Scott of the same thing not too long ago.

Her words bleed into his mind and echo against his eardrums like he's hearing it all over again. "He's unpredictable and irrational…he can be violent without thinking it through first…What if he accidently goes after your mom? He could hurt her."

Isaac glances up at Scott, knows he's thinking about the exact same thing, about how one mistake can turn him into the monster they both know he could be. Scott swallows and shakes his head firmly, because no—Allison and Charlie, they don't know Isaac like he does.

Charlie takes a step forward but he makes the mistake of taking his eyes of Scott and before Isaac realizes what's going on Scott has charged at him again, successfully knocking him over and into a nearby tree. He can tell Scott's using all of his strength not to hurt him and he knows he doesn't have much time, one out of two things will happen and Scott will either win or lose. Scott is the strongest person he knows, for many reasons, and he knows he doesn't want to hurt Charlie unless he has to. Isaac reaches forward and stands up straight, wobbling slightly on his legs as the wolfsbane claws throughout his system.

Ally makes a noise and repositions her gun, getting ready to shoot—"Don't." Isaac tries again. "Listen to me. I heard the way you talked about your mother down by the lake, I know how much you loved her…heartbeats don't lie about that sort of thing."

She swallows and shakes her head, not sure she wants to listen to this or not but her arms lower ever so slightly.

"You can't keep doing this, it's not about revenge anymore," Isaac says softly, taking a tentative step towards her, arms outstretched to convey that he means no harm. He blocks out everything that isn't Ally's upbeat thumps of her heart, concentrates on it. "It's about rage, it's about your brother's anger…and if you don't do something about it, it's going to consume you."

Ally glances to her left to where Charlie is struggling against Scott; he's losing and screaming for her to shoot. The gun lowers even more.

Isaac nods his head as Scott pins Charlie to the ground, his arms fall slightly as he looks at the gun and then to Ally. She turns her head and her eyes connect with his, wide green pools filled with confused tears and the effort to hold onto something that's made her whole. Or at least feel like it—he can literally see the anger fade from the evergreen, leaving a small metaphorical hole in the center of her chest. But it's not like before, the wound has started to heal, she'll be okay eventually.

"Your mom wouldn't want this for you." He said softly as her hands fall to her sides, a few tears leaking down her cheeks.

Isaac closes the space between them and gently touches her arm, letting a small breath out through his nose. His knees are shaking, on the verge of collapsing out and under him but he stands his ground as best as he can as Scott leans up off of Charlie, thinking the initial threat is over.

It happens far too fast for him to stop it, the fury seeping off of Charlie is enough to choke him. It tastes like charcoal in the back of his throat, smells like a fire that's been burning far too long. Charlie jerks up from his position on the ground and rushes toward Ally and the gun. There's a brief struggle as he slams his sister into the dirt, an echoing gunshot and suddenly it feels like everything slows—heartbeats and breaths, seconds and molecules. He runs to where Charlie is on top of Ally and rolls his body off of her, the amount of blood on her chest is pooled into her clothing, it stings the back of his nose with its syrupy metallic scent.

Scott rushes over and kneels down next to Isaac and Ally, glancing over Charlie before reaching a hand over to gently rest on his neck to feel his pulse. The taller werewolf watches him, crouches next to Ally as she sits up, her hands jerkily holding onto the gun still between her fingertips. He reaches forward and takes the gun from her, swallowing as Scott turns to look at them.

"He's…"

Isaac nearly topples over as Ally turns and buries her face into his shoulder, shaking his entire body with how heavily she's breathing, his arms feebly reach out and wrap around her as he looks down at Charlie's body.

Scott places a gentle hand on his shoulder and squeezes before shaking his head. "Guess you were right," He says softly. "Can't save everyone."

He swallows and turns his head to kiss at Scott's wrist before closing his eyes.