"He made me jump to the final of what I had to say," said Deaton "but Scott, I think you should hear the whole story".
Scott nods: "Uh-hum!"
Interlude
1615, somewhere in colonial USA…
A werewolf and a druid fight. The druid's using a staff to protect himself, spinning it. He manages to hit the werewolf in the upper torso with the crystal in the tip of the staff. The crystal shines red and the 'wolf is very hurt now, but still fighting.
Other werewolves in the vicinity howl. The two are surrounded, but no one else interferes.
The howling apparently makes the werewolf, an alpha for the color of its eyes, more enthusiastic, and thus he hurts the other in the calf, rending him still. The druid drags himself away, being chased. This alpha is a Complete Alpha, just like Peter when he was an alpha. He does not look anything human.
The druid breaks the staff, releasing a dust that gets into the eyes of the wolf. His blood in the claws of the wolf starts to boil away and the wolf falls unconscious.
All the wolves around are silent. They retreat one step. The druid gets some werewolf blood from the corpse, mounts a horse and rides away.
In his lab, he mixes the blood with other ingredients and drinks it. His calf almost completely heals.
His place is a cave full of opened werewolf bodies. In cells, shadows, probably ones still alive, can be seen.
Someone enters and puts a knife to the druid's throat.
"You should not be here, Charles." Says the druid.
"I'm not afraid of you."
The other man, a scar from the neck to the right eye, retreats and sits on a chair.
"You killed another alpha. You gonna get the whole village killed if they retaliate."
The druid,old, white-bearded, leans on a desk.
"They're too afraid to fight back, these monsters. Besides, I'm doing it for the good of all mankind."
"Theodore, you're a druid. Science should not be in your to-do list."
"And you're a werewolf. What does it say about you?" Gives him the back.
"Look at me." The other says.
Now the druid's afraid. It's not like he's not afraid of the beasts. He just faces his fears. He spins to look at him, and what he sees is a red-eyed creature.
"You… killed an alpha."
"Yes, I've stolen some things you've been hiding here. Unfair, I know, but now it doesn't matter." Coming closer.
The druid retreats. "What will you do?"
The one threatening gets to the scientist and holds him, looking in the eyes.
"You'll join me and help a pack of werewolves."
"But this would betray my beliefs!"
"Come on, Theodore! You only care about the science, and you will be closer to your object of research ."
Now…
"This is how we begin to be Wolf allies and serve them. And I believe that Theodore's research was also incorporated in the hunters methods."
Scott didn't know why he heard all of this. He looks baffled.
"I know I said nothing of interest, apparently. But Gerard's taking the same path as Theodore. Look."
And saying this, Deaton spread photographs of the images catched by Gerard's cameras on the table. He explained:
"The weakness and strength of a werewolf can be seen by the right camera. The more a werewolf gets powerful, the hotter his body gets."
"I don't understand. Why would he be looking at this?"
"This." Puts a machine on the table too. -"A vaporizer. He was spreading chemicals on the room. Testing. From what I could see, he did various experimentations. Let me give you an example. This." He gets a compound in a bottle and pours it in Scott's arms. The hair in his arms falls and grows new one immediately.
"Now look at this." And he turns on a little TV screen and it shows an image of a flat surface and vertical lines falling. It's Scott's arm apparently. Scott looks, waiting. Nothing else happens.
Scott, mortified: "Does this mean I wasn't healing that time?!"
Deaton: "Exactly."
Stiles is nervous on his phone.
"I don't know why I still try to reach someone on hours like this! Scott and Derek, they don't answer!"
Lydia gets his phone: "They're ruling out you. You rule them out too. We can do this alone."
Stiles looks at the dead-bodies tree. He nods slightly.
Lydia: "So, what do we do now?"
Stiles: "We call my dad."
Lydia: "Are you serious?! All your efforts are for backup?!"
Stiles slips his phone into his pocket: "I guess not. Let's goo see this dead body parade more closely."
They cautiously approach the tree.
Deaton's clinic…
Scott's leaving. He turns back and says:
"You didn't tried to delay Derek."
"Scott, there was no way. Derek knew the whole story already, having been grown on a family of werewolves."
"You're lying, I can hear your heart pound."
"He wasn't going to let go off his own agenda. I saw it in his eyes. I preferred him to go separate ways with you. 'Cause I care about you."
Scott's mad: "I can't let him go now that he's dating my best friend! I must keep him closer, understand?!"
"This is not you, Scott. Gerard must've done something with you that night!"
Scott leaves.
Deaton screams: "Come back! We need to take a look at you!"
Scott's gone. Deaton gasps.
Stiles looks at the computer in his house.
Lydia comes in, coming from the bathroom.
"Any progress?" She asks.
"One." There are pictures of the tree of bodies in the screen of the PC. He zooms in on one, showing an object of metal. "There were at least three different signals I found on these bodies. And I suppose it's more or less twenty bodies there."
"Un-wan-ted information, Stiles." She says. "Why would someone put'em there like that?"
"To make of them an example. It's a threat."
She changes the subject: "What did you find, after all?"
He continues: "I could only find one reference. That has to do with a Cynocephali."
Lydia looks at the screen: "It looks like a werewolf."
"Yeah, it's werewolf-y. I think the bodies are from werewolf hunter families members. How many adjectives, now that I said it!"
Lydia: "And some..." scared "Something did all of this to them!?"
He pauses for this to sink into her mind.
"Yes." Confirms. "But there is one thing that's strange. The Argents's symbol isn't in there."
"Hey, Stiles, you said they were talking about Gerard before. Gerard Argent."
"I hate that he's leaving me aside now." mentioning Derek
Lydia looks to him, silent.
He breaks the silence: "They are leaving me aside." emphasis on 'they'.
Someone knocks at the window. They look. Scott's there. They open it and he enters.
He sees the images on the screen.
He says: "So that was what the police sirens I heard were all about."
Stiles: "So they arrived there then." Notices something: "Hey, where's Derek?"
Lydia: "Stop talking about him a little!" Goes out of the room. "Gonna get some water."
Scott: "Derek's on his own now." Stiles looks confused. Scott completes: "He's gone rogue. My guess is that he's on the Nemeton, I'm headed there, but I came here first to hear your thoughts on something."
Stiles is intrigued.
Nemeton's vicinity, before…
Derek's being chased by werewolf hunters. He's hurt, an open wound in his chest, all soaked in blood. When he's about to hide behind a tree, someone hit him in the leg and he fell, rolling. This person renders him with a shotgun pointed at his head. Derek waits for the shot.
"You're" looking at his t-shirt, which has a symbol "You're an Argent."
"Yes." The man says. He has an overcoat and a hat and is smoking a cigarrete. He looks like a cowboy from a western movie. "You've been watching over Gerard. With your heightened senses."
"Yeah, but get a wolf for yourselves, 'cause I'm not about to help you."
The man shoots to the sky and touches Derek's face with the heated tip of the gun.
"Be careful what you say, boy, we do not get along with wolves. Your case is an exception, so or you help us, or you're not going to live." He kneels and comes closer to Derek. "Or you can live and who we'll kill is your beloved Stiles. Haven't decided yet." Sees the panick in Derek's eyes and smiles in joy. "Yes, we've been watching you two. We've been watching Beacon Hills. Now come with us."
The coated man helps the other getting up and they start to walk.
Nemeton, now…
Scott and Stiles arrive.
Scott stops: "I'm smelling… Derek, silver…" He walks and kneels before a pool of blood.
Stiles sees and despairs, eyes watering, he tries to fake resignation.
Scott hugs him: "He's the sour wolf, remember? He's okay." He pushes Stiles with him. "Let's look at what's left of the Nemeton." Entering the crumbling structure.
They check it, but Stiles is distracted.
Scott: "Stiles, focus."
Stiles stops: "Maybe you should call Isaac, or Malia… someone…"
Scott goes near him: "Isaac's training with Mr. Argent in Paris is isolated. And Malia is missing, she's probably back to being a coyote full-time far away from here. But why would you say so?""
"Because maybe you'll need more strength as an alpha to face whatever the hell killed all of those persons in that tree. And I know turning more people into werewolves is not an option."
The two share a look of hopelessness. They know what's on each other's minds. It would be bringing more people to get killed for them.
Stiles starts looking around. There's laboratory material all around and some things with Argent logo. He finds something: "Scott."
The two are looking to a bomb. They run out of the place. Nothing happens.
Stiles deduces: "It wasn't for us. Someone wants Gerard dead."
At a camp in the middle of the woods, one guy sees, through a cellphone, Scott and Stiles looking at the bomb. There's a mini-camera in it. He goes out to find Derek standing near a bonfire.
"Have you shared all your info, yet?"He asks.
Derek's not alone. A short-haired blonde lady and a tiny brawny guy are with him, covering both of his sides, right and left.
"Yes," says the lupine "now what will happen to me?"
"We will do you no harm. But you might need to harm your friends."
Derek looks at him angrily.
St. Claire Square…
Scott and Stiles address sheriff Stiles.
"Hi, father." It's an official compliment, not an affective one, 'cause it's full of embarrassment.
"Hi, son. Where have you been the whole day?"
"Scott's house. So… what happened here?"
Sheriff's not a fool: "Come'on son, spill it out, I know that you know more than you appear to know, since you're here."
They share a father-son look.
"These are probably wolf hunters, all of them. And none is from the Argent family. We have a clue it's something related to Gerard Argent." pause "And I think he took Derek as a hostage, for some reason."
They share another meaningful look, one that says 'anytime now, son, I'm just waiting for you to tell me', but it ends quickly without any changes to the status quo.
"We'll find him." The sheriff says, right after going back to the police stuff.
Stiles nods. When his father's gone, he realizes Scott is nowhere around him. He's annoyed.
Scott's chasing Gerard through alleys. Then Gerard stops, turns to see him and throws a dog whistle away. Scott's in his werewolf form.
"I needed to talk to you alone, now that… well, you saw what happened."
Scott's angry and attacks Gerard, that only crouches, deviating from the blow. And it happens again and again. Scott can't hit the old man.
So he asks: "What do you want from me?!"
"Me? Let's just say that" Coming near Scott: "I want you to" As he comes closer, Scott's transformation goes away: "be my slave." They're very near and Scott's human.
Scott looks at his hands, surprised.
"What did you do?!"
"Turn." Says Gerard and Scott turns into werewolf mode again. "Now kill him."
Now Scott sees there's another guy, hanging in a wall, tied up. Without control, Scott rips the throat of the man.
Gerard looks this and coments, pleased: "Perfect."
To be continued…