Lads and lassies… My apologies for the delay! As I warned in the previous chapter, I wasn't prepared for the end of season 3b! However, I have to admit that I really enjoyed it (even though I'm going to miss Void!Stiles….) But, neither here nor there… In any case, this here story is drawing to a close! However, fret not; I most definitely plan on making a post-3b fic as well. I can't help it! Stiles torture is just too wonderful!

OoooO

Scott sat quietly on the edge of Stiles' bed. He had been there for almost the entire night, not moving a muscle as he thought of the events that had taken place that morning. No matter how much the others tried to coax him out, he remained. Eventually, Lydia had joined him. She was holding an icepack to her temple and Scott managed to muster a small smile in her general direction; she weakly returned it and took a seat in the computer chair across from him. Together, they sat in silence.

For the millionth time, Scott's mother poked her head in to check on them. The alpha almost snapped at her, but a stern look from Lydia silenced him. He was glad for it, as Melissa delivered the first good news they'd heard all night: "Derek says that he and the others were able to trace the scent out of town."

"How far out?" Scott asked, his voice cold and detached.

"Clear into Glenwood," his mother replied. "They're certain they can pinpoint the location further in the city, but they didn't want to make a move without you."

"Good," Scott replied. When his mother didn't move he clenched his jaw and said through his teeth, "was there something else?"

"Scott," Lydia warned, but her tone remained soft. The werewolf closed his eyes and breathed slowly in and out.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice much more gentle than before. "It's just…"

"I know," his mother replied. "I know… Lydia, honey? Let's take a look at that bump to see if the swelling's gone down."

Lydia pursed her plump lips, her eyes darting to Scott for a moment before acquiescing. As she and Melissa left Scott, he couldn't help it as the morning's events played in his mind yet again…

They barely had time to react after the front door exploded inwards. Splinters of wood went flying past the heads of everyone and dust, leaves, and other various debris followed. However, it did not take long for a figure to manifest in the doorway. The vary air seemed to split around the stranger until it revealed a curvy blonde with a killer look in her eyes. After staring down the house's occupants with her red eyes, her even redder lips parted and she loosed a vicious snarl. At that moment, everyone knew who she was… and who she had come for.

"Daliah," Scott said, already transformed and ready to attack.

Isaac was immediately at his side. "Direct confrontation… that's pretty ballsy."

"Your kind does not concern me," Daliah replied in a voice several pitches too low to be feminine. She looked around a moment before adding, "no matter how many of you there are."

Scott snarled, but he couldn't shake the feeling that they were going to be over-powered. Not only were they woefully unprepared, but there was no telling what this maagrim could do, especially now that she was stronger than ever… and quite obviously pissed off. "Don't underestimate us," Scott growled.

The maagrim laughed; it was quite possibly the most disturbing thing the alpha had ever heard. "How cute you are… Now. You have something of mine."

"Stiles doesn't belong to you!" Scott shouted. Daliah's lips curled back in a snarl – Scott replied with a loud roar

"You really think you are a match for me, wolf?"

Scott grinned viciously. "Not just me."

With a speed that rivaled Scott's, the Twins swung down from the front porch overhang and landed a couple of square kicks to Daliah's back. She was unable to defend herself from the attack and smashed right into the stairs. Scott and Isaac ducked at just the right time to avoid her flailing form.

However, it didn't take long for her to recover. Instantly, she launched herself at the alpha. Her mouth was filled with razor-sharp teeth – what seemed like row after row – and her claws matched his own, albeit longer. All traces of the human skin she wore vanished as her face twisted with feral rage and her claws lashed out at the wolves. Allison had managed to pull the sheriff aside to avoid the initial barrage of attacks, but he was already reaching for his gun. "No!" she cried out. "You might hit one of them!"

"That's the monster that took my son!" he exclaimed as he brandished the Beretta. It was to no avail. He wasn't even able to raise the pistol before one of the Twins came flying towards him. Together, they smashed into the table and sent dishes and plastic flying everywhere. The sheriff let out a cry of pain as the weight of the wolf forced a large chunk of porcelain into his side.

"Move! Now!" Allison ordered as she pushed Aiden off of him. Blood soaked the sheriff's shirt. If this fight carried on too long, the sheriff risked bleeding out. "We have to get him to the hospital!"

"NO!" Stiles' father protested. "Not until she's dead!"

Despite the sheriff's pleas, the fight did not seem to be ending anytime soon… and it didn't look like it was going in the werewolves' favor, either.

Isaac was crumpled against the wall, his arm bent at an awkward angle and blood seeping from both his ears and both nostrils. Ethan was attempting to grab a hold of the maagrim, but every time he got close another hole was stabbed into him by her elongated claws. Scott was fairing no better; bite wound after bite wound littered his arms and neck, each one oozing a dark liquid that Allison could only guess was venom. If the tide didn't turn soon, they were going to lose. There was only one choice: they had to grab Stiles and make a run for it.

Unfortunately, that wasn't in the cards, either.

"SCOTT!"

The fighting ceased as all eyes looked up to the top of the battered staircase. Scott's mom stood there with a frantic expression, her hands covered in blood. "Lydia! It's… she… he…"

"Daliah."

All eyes then turned back to the doorway. There stood Stiles, hood over his head and eyes downcast. He spared a brief glance towards his father, but otherwise was motionless. Scott felt his heart sink into his feet. "Stiles, no…"

Daliah grinned morbidly at the teen before looking back to Ethan's face, which she was nearly about to pierce with her deadly claws. "See?" she said, taking a step back before finally looking to Scott. "I told you he belonged to me."

"Stiles!" Allison shouted from the sheriff's side. "What… what are you doing?"

"You can't go with her!" Scott interjected. "Not after all this… not after we just found you!"

Stiles squeezed his eyes shut. "I made a mistake," he whispered.

"Yes, you did," Daliah chastised as she made her way towards the teen. She looked back at the bloodied wolves. Her face was now devoid of all nightmarish features and her tone was normalized… almost sickly sweet. "Now… let's go before someone gets killed because of you."

She held out her hand, claws gone now as well.

"Please, Stiles," Scott whispered. "Don't go with her…"

"I'm sorry," his brother replied before grasping her hand. The two walked out together.

"NO!" the alpha shouted, mustering up the strength to chase after them. However, when he reached the door they were gone. "No…"

Scott shuddered. He hadn't done enough… no one had. Lydia had been knocked unconscious by Stiles and the sheriff… he was stuck in the E.R. and undergoing surgery for the wound caused by Daliah. They had been severely beaten. The only thing that made the situation even worse was that Daliah could have killed them, had she wanted to. But, she didn't. She let them live so that Stiles could see how they had been forced to suffer on his behalf, furthering her hold on his mind. It was all very sickening and Scott had to repeatedly fight back the bile that rose in his throat.

In the end, all that Scott could think about was that they had no idea how to save Stiles… other than the obvious: kill Daliah. But, how? He had no clue. Not even Deaton had been able to tell them how to kill a maagrim. He barely knew a thing about them as it was... Their situation was completely hopeless. 'If only Clyde were still alive,' Scott thought grimly. Perhaps they would have some clue as to how to kill her. Not just weaken her or scare her away, but kill h…

The alpha's eyes widened and he jumped up. Clyde…

That was it.

"Allison!" he shouted, running out of Stiles' room and leaping down the semi-repaired stairs. "Allison!"

"Scott, what is it!?" the brunette asked concernedly. The alpha skid to a stop in front of her and Lydia. His mother was only a few feet away tending to Isaac's still healing wounds. The Twins were with Derek, but they could hear his ideas later… He actually had a plan… one that he was almost certain would work.

"How well do you know your dad's arsenal?"

"My dad's… why-"

"How well!?" Scott exclaimed. Allison blinked a few times before stuttering out a reply.

"Uh, well… I'd say fairly well. We went through it together after we changed our code of ethics."

Scott's excitement seemed to double. "Does he have anything that launches liquid? Like poison or something!?"

Allison nodded. "Yeah, of course. He's used tranquilizers to bring down big threats for questioning in the past…"

"Can it be modified? To contain anything, I mean?"

Allison nodded again. "Yeah, of course."

Scott grabbed her hand. "Call him. Tell him to bring everything he has to Deaton's clinic."

"Scott, what-"

"Isaac. Mom," he said, turning towards them. Melissa already had her eyes on him, but Isaac was forced to pry his open; one eye was still blood-red from the fight. "The bodies… the people that Daliah killed… Are they still in the morgue?"

"Only the most recent, about a week after Stiles disappeared," his mother replied. "It's been on ice since they wanted to determine what it was that killed her… but it won't be there for much longer… why?"

"If it's possible, could you get as much of her blood as possible?"

His mother looked at his like he was crazy. "Scott, her blood is most likely coagulated and…"

"Perfect!" he shouted. "Go… and get as many vials full as you can. The more rotted the better. Isaac, get a hold of Derek and whoever else is with him. Tell them not to lose the trail… that I'll be there as soon as possible…"

"Scott," Allison said yet again. "Scott, what's going on? What's your plan?"

The alpha turned towards Lydia, who had been quietly approaching from the hallway. "Lydia… Go with Mom and Isaac to the hospital and stay with Stiles' dad… We can keep him informed that way." She simply nodded. He turned back to the expectant faces of everyone else. "I have a plan… It's dangerous, but… I think it'll work. If we hurry… it'll work."

OoooO

He was alive… if only barely.

Stiles was hardly able to keep himself conscious as he listened to the faint sounds of the world around him. He had long lost the ability to open his eyes or move his limbs; Daliah had seen to that. She kept him so out of it, so filled with poison that when he tried to speak, no words came out. The maagrim would see to it that her pet never escaped again.

The longer he stayed that way, the less he cared.

Stiles knew that he had made a terrible mistake, beyond any shadow of a doubt. He should have immediately revealed his dilemma to his friends, his family, to Scott… But he had selfishly internalized it. Now, he was paying the price. No longer in control of his limbs or even his thoughts, all the darkness within his mind germinated and grew into something even darker. At some point after a feeding, Daliah had mentioned it, but Stiles couldn't make out her words. Just something about his soul or the like… he didn't bother trying to ask her to repeat it.

No, he'd more or less resigned himself to his fate. He deserved to be lying there in the rubble of the abandoned building as Daliah fed off of every last bit of his humanity. It occurred to him that he was very near death. Most likely, she would drain him to the point of no return and his consciousness – his sense of self – would slip away entirely and she would leave him… His body would die and everything that had once been the sarcastic, energetic, teenage boy known as Stiles would fade away.

He only hoped that the others had made peace with it like he had.

OoooO

"Deaton!"

The veterinarian came bolting out of the back room. "I got everything ready right after you called," he explained as he threw the ash wood door open. Scott stepped in and closed the gate behind him.

"Good… We need to work fast."

"Mind clueing me in on the plan?" the druid asked as he and Scott entered the examination room. On the steel slab lay several different instruments, all vital to the alpha's plan. He felt another spark of hope at the speed in which things were moving along.

"We can't do anything until Mom, Isaac, Allison, and her dads are all here," Scott warned, "but… I think I've found a way to kill the maagrim."

"…You've found a way to kill the maagrim?" Deaton repeated in disbelief. Scott couldn't stop the smile on his face.

"It's kind of morbid, but do you remember Clyde? The other maagrim who was helping us?"

The vet crossed his arms. "Yes… If I remember correctly, he died soon after…?"

Scott nodded. "Yeah, Daliah killed him. But, you remember how sick he always was? And why?"

"I vaguely remember you mentioning it… he was trying to mask the cause of death on the other maagrim's victims… Draining the poison from them."

"It made him weak… really weak. In fact, he almost died on Allison's bathroom floor."

Deaton's eyes widened as he began to understand what Scott was getting at. "When is your mother going to get here?"

OoooO

Melissa took a long look down the hall at the two men in suits standing outside the morgue door. They were talking with the coroner, though she couldn't tell what it was about. If she had to guess, it would most likely be about the strange corpses.

"I'm guessing there's no real excuse you can give to go in there and start exsanguinating dead people," Isaac said flatly.

"Not the ones pending federal investigation under mysterious causes of death," Melissa replied.

"What if I went and talked to them? Distracted them so that you could slip by?"

The nurse sighed and leaned back around the corner. "That might work, other than the fact that you would have to distract them for a considerable amount of time." She opened her large purse to reveal the various equipment and empty vials inside. "Scott specified that he needed as much as we could get… and I don't really know long it'll take."

"Well, I don't have to talk to them," Isaac reasoned. Melissa slowly turned to see a strangely ornery grin on the beta's face.

"…oh no… Do I even wanna know?"

"No," Isaac replied as he undid his belt. "Not really." The nurse just stared at him incredulously. He glanced at her briefly. "You might wanna turn around, now."

"Turning," she replied.

Moments later, Isaac Lahey was running naked through the halls and snarling at everyone he came across. The screams quickly followed. It wasn't much later that the two suits and the doctor ran past her as well to aide in whatever commotion the werewolf was causing. Without wasting another second, Melissa rounded the corner and slipped into the morgue.

OoooO

"If your plan works," Deaton said cautiously, "then how do you think Stiles will react?" Scott didn't answer. Instead, a pained expression distorted his features so much so that Deaton immediately felt guilty for asking. However, it was an important question.

"He's pretty much given up," Scott eventually replied. "I don't know how he'll react… But it doesn't matter." He set his jaw firmly and looked his boss square in the eyes. "Even if he hates me, this is all to save him. Even if part of that is saving him from himself."

The druid smiled. "I like that answer." His smile soon faded. "But time is running out… No doubt, this maagrim is going to go on some sort of rampage for what you've done. And I'm sure Stiles is facing some pretty tough discipline as we speak."

"I knooow…" the alpha whined uncharacteristically. Suddenly, his head snapped to the side. Moments later, the front door's bell chimed and Allison came charging into the back, a large duffle bag in her arms. Her father followed with two small hard cases.

"I'm so sorry!" Allison exclaimed as she set the bag on the counter. "It took longer than I thought an-"

"No, it's fine," Scott replied. "Mom and Isaac aren't here yet, either." He looked up and gave Chris Argent a short nod. "Thanks for doing this."

"It may not be much," the hunter replied as he opened each case. Inside them were a handful tranquilizer rounds and loading equipment. "We had to retrofit them all to match the gun Allison will be shooting. The maagrim is much faster than normal – even faster than you. We had to go with the hyper velocity rounds, but they tend to be less accurate." He reached in and pulled one out. "However, I think our handiwork and Allison's aim will get the job done." The hunter set the round back in the box and then laid his Desert Eagle on the tabletop. "I'll provide my own backup… in case things don't work out."

The alpha was about to protest the hunter going against Daliah with only a pistol when his phone rang. He glanced at the I.D. and placed the call on speakerphone. "Lydia… Did you make it to the sheriff?"

"Yes, I just…"

Scott couldn't quite tell what was off in her voice, but he likened it to fear. "Lydia? What's wrong!? Is everyone okay!?"

"We're fine; the sheriff's fine, it's just that there was a lot of screaming here a few minutes ago and… It seems to have stopped, but I was worried that maybe Daliah…"

"Nope," said Isaac as he and Scott's mom somehow materialized behind everyone. "That was just me."

"You don't wanna know," Melissa replied as she set down four vials of thick, brown liquid. "This is all I could get. I hope it's enough."

Chris Argent reached over and inspected a single vial. "This should work. We'll be able to get several shots out of these."

"Ideally, we'll only need to shoot once, maybe twice," Allison replied, "but I definitely won't mind the extra ammo."

"Once we get the poisoned blood mixed with the ketamine, we can load them into the tranquilizer rounds. If they don't kill her," Scott said with a growl in his voice, "then they should at least slow her down enough to tear her to pieces."

"Scott…"

Everyone was silent as the sheriff's voice came through the receiver.

"Scott, save my son… Please… Save him."

OoooO

Derek had been pacing for almost twenty minutes before Scott rode in on his bike, quickly followed by the Twins and Chris Argent's red Escalade. Inside were hunters father and daughter, as well as Lydia. Peter stepped forward from his leaning post against an old streetlamp. "…did we bring enough back up?"

His nephew ignored him. "I hope your plan works," he said as Scott jogged over to him. The alpha glanced back at the Escalade as Allison and her father removed a couple of hard plastic cases; one was long and rectangular, the other a small box.

"It's a good one," he reasoned. "For once."

The Argents approached them and set the boxes on the ground. "This," he said, opening the larger case, "is a modified Barrett M90. In order to hit this monster before she can dodge or deflect the poisoned bullets, we had to retrofit the rifle to shoot with the same power and velocity it normally does, but without damaging these new rounds." He pulled it out and began assembly. "The only issue… is that it's a heavy gun. Despite my modifications, we can't carry it into a fight and hope to fire accurately… Not even with a hand as steady as Allison's." He glanced at his daughter.

"So you're saying that we need to bring her to Allison," Aiden said. Chris nodded.

"Once she's exposed, we'll be able to take the shot." He handed to rifle to Allison, who swung it gracefully over her shoulder.

"She's about a mile into town… just inside a cluster of old worker apartments. The factory must've shut down and the buildings were all condemned. No one lives there but the local homeless," Derek informed them.

"Whatever's left of them, anyways," Peter added.

"How do we go in?" Ethan asked.

"It's best if Derek and Scott lead the way. I'll go in, too," the experienced hunter instructed.

"Dad," Allison stated. She grabbed his arm. "She'll chew you up."

He quickly unveiled dual Desert Eagles. "I'm prepared to help slow her down." Allison didn't seem convinced, but she remained quiet. "If we go in fast and loud, she should be distracted enough to allow Allison to get into position. Our numbers will help confuse her."

"What about Stiles?"

Everyone was silent as Lydia's voice rang clear through the air.

"He's going to be there," she continued. "He's going to be there and he's going to try and stop us."

Scott clenched his fists as a conflicted expression crossed his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but Derek stepped forward. "Let's just make sure we kill her before he has a chance to make more stupid mistakes."

The alpha nodded.

With everyone ready, they charged in. This was it… their final chance to save Stiles.