Authors Note:

Hey, so it's been a while again. Life's been very busy. I've been keeping this a secret for a while now but I was working on writing a screenplay for a short film which has just been given the greenlight and necessary funding. I'll also be at the helm of the project as Director! I'll keep you all posted with news on that, it's very exciting! Forgive me if I go a little AWOL again, it's a valid excuse I swear (*hides in corner*). Same old story.

Thanks you wonderful readers for all the support I'm so thankful to have you watching my works! You guys motivate me more than you'll ever know! We've almost finished S2. Three more chapters to go!

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Ultimate Decision

For the thousandth time in Avery's life she actually found herself glad they way she had been raised. Aside from all the blatant murder she and her family had been responsible for she had gained skills that ensured her survival at this moment. Take for one the gymnastics classes she'd endured despite her many detests. As she scaled the side of the Stilinski house to reach the window the bedroom that housed the hidden bestiary, this had become apparent.

She had minutes ago circled the house in search for the window Scott had described and hoisted herself up onto the roof outside it. This wasn't her first house climbing she had done either. There had been one particular boyfriend back in senior year that she exerted a lot of effort to see. To no surprise, boyfriends had been banned until Avery had hit eighteen. And to even less surprise, Avery had not listened.

She stood precariously on the tiles, as she pried open Stiles' window. Of course the kid hadn't locked it, so in she crept. The Sheriff much to her relief was still out presumably looking for his missing son. She closed the window behind herself. When inside she inspected her surroundings and tried not to choke on the pungent odor that filled the air. Scott had said the USB was most likely in the bedside table, which she went to straight away. No moment wasted she flipped through the contents of the drawer to no avail. The USB wasn't there. She stood up tall and folded her arms. Where on earth could it be?

She looked under the bed, in the draws of his desk. She threw papers and books everywhere in search for it. It was a flurry of disorder, yet still she hadn't made Stiles' room look messy. If anything her little search party had made it neater. She had been so focused on finding the bloody thing she almost didn't notice the front door opening and footsteps trudging upstairs. The Sheriff was home!

Urgently she spun around, looking for somewhere to hide. She couldn't get out the window; there wasn't enough time to get it open. So the only place she could think of was the wardrobe; the source of the odor. She jumped inside, closing the doors to it quietly and stood with baited breath. The Sheriff entered and turned on the lights, his ear plastered to a phone trying to get some more information from his deputies. Avery could see through the crack in the door as his hands ran through his hair and he paced back and forth. She couldn't help but feel a knot in her gut. She had forgotten that Stiles' disappearance was one of great impact. She didn't know Stiles' personally. She'd barely remembered him from the night when Victoria had tried to kill her. But Sam did and even he was worried. Watching the Sheriff worry that he'd find his son in a ditch somewhere had brought things into perspective. Her pack, or whatever she was a part of meant something. They took care of their own no matter how insignificant their role. She needed to remember that. The Sheriff finally hung up but there had still been no word.

" Come on Stiles." The Sheriff stared at his phone, "Where are you?"

And as if on cue, Stiles' voice rang out from the doorway, "I'm right here."

Avery held her breath, although she wanted to sigh of relief. But the relief wasn't forever. The more she listened the more things became apparent that something bad had happened. The Sheriff raced forward as Stiles tried to calm him.

"Dad it's okay. It's okay."

"Who did this?" the Sheriff asked, moving out of Avery's sight.

"It's okay. It was just a couple of kids from the other team. They were pissed about losing and I was mouthing off you know, and next thing I know-,"

"Who was it?" the Sheriff asked sternly.

"Dad, I don't know." Stiles spoke, "I didn't see."

"I want descriptions."

"Dad, come on it's not even that bad." Stiles' tone shifted in slight annoyance.

"I'm calling that school and I'm going to personally go down there and I'm going to pistol-whip those little bastards-,"

"Dad! DAD!" Stiles' tried to calm his father, "I said I was okay." Only silence followed before the sound of the two hugging. Minutes later they released and the Sheriff left Stiles in peace. Avery couldn't help but fear coming out of the closet. She'd unwittingly intruded on a personal moment. In hindsight Scott should have come.

When Stiles collapsed back onto his bed, she took it as her moment to come from her hiding spot. She knew he'd scream. It would be rather terrifying someone jumping out of your wardrobe. As soon as she pushed at the door it squeaked and his eyes flicked straight up and onto her. As expected he went to yelp so she bolted forward and placed a firm hand against his mouth.

"Stiles I'm a friend of Derek's." she tried to calm him, but his eyes were wide with confusion, "If you promise not to shout I'll let go."

He nodded. She backed away slightly, hands in the air as a sign of peace.

"I'm Sam's sister. I think you met him."

"Yeah. He's the giant cat." Stiles replied dumbfounded. Avery gave a small chuckle to that and nodded. Her smile slowly faded as she took in the boy's appearance and why his father had been so furious. His face had been battered and bruised, the conversation made sense.

"Scott said you had a copy of Gerard's bestiary." She quickly spat out, trying not to stare at the deep purple bruise that was elevated on his cheek, "On a USB."

"I do but unless you can read archaic Latin-," Stiles went to explain when Avery interjected.

"I can. That's why I'm here and not Scott. We haven't got much time on our hands." Avery tried to explain. Again Stiles looked confused, "You don't know… Jackson's dead."

"What?" Stiles' got to his feet.

"Actually I don't think he really is and then Scott's Mum said something about his body secreting venom. Anyway we need the bestiary to work out what the hell is going on."

"I've got it right here." He walked over to the wardrobe and into the socks drawer. Underneath a pile of black socks he pulled out the USB and walked back to the computer. Avery warily looked over her shoulder, worried that the Sheriff would enter again at any moment. She didn't want to get back inside that wardrobe, not unless her life depended on it.

Stiles had begun bringing up the document over whatever else he had on his screen previously. Stood over his shoulder as the scanned pages loaded. She could read it all.

"Go to page one hundred and eight." She commanded and he did. The heading 'Kanima' was clear. She read fast and quick trying to find what they needed about Jackson before it was too late.

"What does it say?" Stiles asked after a moment of silence.

"The usual. Just about it's appearance and the general lore. Weapon of vengeance. Mutated form. Master becoming the Kanima if they kill innocents. Blah Blah." She pattered on before coming to something interesting, "Wait. That's not right."

"What isn't?" Stiles asked again. Avery stood up tall and shook her head.

"As relationship between the Kanima and its master grows, it manifests physically."

"Meaning?" Stiles stared at her waiting for a response. She took a deep breath and stared him in the eyes.

"It means that Jackson was in his beta phase. But that's not the case anymore."

"What's the alpha phase look like?" Stiles said with worry, his brow furrowing. Avery scrutinized the document again before pulling back.

"It has wings…" Avery shared his concern. Stiles' mouth formed an 'Oh'.

"We better let everyone know." Stiles proposed and Avery nodded. He pulled his phone out and quickly started dialing for Scott. Avery pulled the USB from the computer and dropped it in her pocket as she waited for Scott to answer. That was a seemingly insignificant act. She didn't think that taking a USB out of a computer would change her entire life, but she was wrong.

The document vanished from the screen and left was the last pages Stiles' had been on; a local news page reporting on the death of four men in Beacon Hills. Her eyes glanced over for a moment, but couldn't move once they read the title. She moved closer to the screen and began to scroll down. Images of the victims were displayed beside it and that familiar knot in her stomach returned.

She knew them. Not personally but she'd seen them before. In fact she could never forget. The night she fought with Sam and was attacked. The four men that tried to drag her away. She shuddered at the thought. Her helplessness chilled her. Then came the worse part of the article, the part that described the bodies were torn to pieces, barely recognizable. Avery could see the dream she had had play in front of her eyes. She had thought it was a dream but now she was certain it was not.

Stiles' was speaking to her, trying to get more information to Scott but she couldn't respond. She could only stare at the screen in horror. She needed more information; she needed to see the photos of the crime scene. Any old animal attack could have killed them. If the crime scene photos matched the images ingrained in her mind then she would have a serious problem on her hands.

"Stiles, your Dad's the Sheriff. Can you get access to his cases?" she cut off whatever he was saying.

"Yeah, probably. But shouldn't we be focused on Jackson." He shrugged.

"He can wait." She let her eyes fall off the screen and onto Stiles, "I need you to get the crime scene photos for this case and possibly the photos from the autopsy."

"Wait, why?"

"Can you do it or not?" she raised her voice ever so slightly. He nodded without argument and grabbed the laptop. He typed away from a moment, um'ed and ah'ed until finally he turned it back to face her.

"I worked out how to get into his computer files a while back when Scott and I first started the whole mystery gang sleuthing. This is gory stuff though."

"It's important." She took the laptop off of him and scrolling until she finally came across what she needed. She had found what she dreaded. There was no difference from her dreams and the way these men had died. She couldn't admit anything to Stiles, she barely knew him. All she knew was that the walls around her were closing in and she needed to get out.

The images flashed across her eyes, the dream bore its way into reality. Time was moving faster than she could process. Her hands had gripped Stiles' window and she had pulled it up. She wasn't entirely sure why she was running away or why she did it with such haste. Her legs were out first and then her torso. She jumped from the roof with the voice of Stiles echoing after her until he finally gave up.

Stiles had tried asking her what was going on but she couldn't even think of a way to explain it to herself. One thing kept running through her mind. She hadn't cared about it before but it seemed ironic that now it was all she could think of. The bestiary had stated many things. It had been clear though that if the Kanima Master killed an innocent they could become a Kanima themselves. As much as Avery didn't want to believe it, she couldn't deny the facts.

There were four innocent people dead. She had commanded it. There were always repercussions for acts like that. Avery wasn't going to be human for much longer and that terrified her more than anything.

xxxx

Derek, Peter and Sam entered the Hale house in heated argument, leading the charge was none other than Derek himself.

"I told you, I looked everywhere." He stopped in the arches of the front door as Peter and Sam wandered inside. Peter walked up to the stairs and started feeling at the wood. Finally his fingers hooked under something and the board came loose.

"You didn't look here." He turned back with smugness. From inside he pulled out a rectangular object.

"Wait is that a book?" Derek squinted in the dull lighting. Peter merely scowled.

"No. It's a laptop. What century are you living in?" Peter started walking into the remnants of the living room, Sam and Derek trailing, "A few days after I got out of the coma I transferred everything that we had. Fortunately, the Argent's aren't the only ones that keep records."

"Or grudges." Sam commented swiftly. Peter elected to ignore his comment.

"I'm going to call Scott and see if they've made any progress with Jackson's body." Derek had already begun dialing the number in. Peter sat typing away while McCall finally answer. There was an odd rhythm in the air as they waited for answers. Sam picked up his own phone and tried calling Avery.

"They say he's in some transparent casing that coming out of his claws."

"Well, that sounds sufficiently terrifying." Peter's typing grew louder.

"They also say he's starting to move."

"Okay, look, I think I've found something." Peter called them over. Sam's call went straight to voicemail. He frowned and moved to look over Peter's shoulder, "Look's like what we've seen from Jackson is just the Kanima's beta shape."

"Meaning what?" Sam asked.

"It can turn into something bigger? Derek added. Peter managed to get a photo up.

"Bigger and badder." Peter nodded.

"That thing has wings!" Sam gawped.

"I can see that." Peter's typing resumed.

"Scott bring him to us." Derek said into the other end of the phone.

"Hey, look somebody actually made an animation of it." Peter said with odd excitement, "Maybe it's less frightening if we-." As he spoke the animation played and only made the situation worse. The creature squawked and nearly leapt from the screen.

"Nope. That thing is not okay." Sam stepped back and shook his head.

"We should probably meet them halfway." Peter shut the laptop.

"Scott, get him out of there now! Go now!" Derek commanded and the phone hung up. He turned back to the others, "We better go help them."

"Derek, we need Lydia." Peter stood up.

"Who's Lydia?" Sam asked, Derek interjected.

"There's no time for-."

"See, that's the problem. We're rushing. We're moving too fast. And while everybody knows a moving target is harder to hit, here we are, racing right into Gerard's crosshairs."

"I don't care. If I get the chance to kill Jackson, I'm taking it."

"Woah! Slow down, what happened to saving the kid?" Sam questioned, Derek rolled his eyes.

"You saw the pictures. There's no saving that!"

"Actually, there might be." Peter threw his hand forward, "I tried to explain the myth before to you and your little girlfriend, that calling out a werewolf's Christian name could cure it."

"She's not –." Derek tried to stop him, but Peter barreled on.

"That's not the point Derek. Look, sometimes myths and legends bear ends of truth. Our name is a symbol of who we are. The Kanima has no identity, that's why it doesn't seek a pack. It seeks a master and who else grows up with no pack? No identity?"

"An orphan." Derek and Sam said in slow unison.

"Jackson." Peter nodded, "And right now his identity is disappearing underneath layers on reptilian skin.

"How do we save him then?" Sam questioned.

"Through his heart! How else?" Peter threw his hands in the air.

"You know, in case you haven't noticed. Jackson doesn't really have too much of a heart to begin with." Derek raised a brow.

"Not true. He'd never admit it, but there is one person. One young lady who Jackson shared a real bond. One person who can reach him. Who can save him." Peter spoke.

"Lydia." Derek nodded.

"So you understand, why we need to find Lydia. She may be our only hope."

xxxx

Andrea marched from the basement in the Argent house and to the kitchen to find Brian leaning over a bench, head bowed.

"Are you done down there?" he looked up as she entered. She paused in front of him.

"I've got what I needed."

"And?"

Andrea paused and frowned, "It's worse then we feared."

"What!" Brian burst out. Andrea recoiled slightly before taking in a deep breath.

"He's a Kanima and she…." Andrea grit her teeth tightly, "She's got to be the one in control."

"So there's two Kanima's now?" Brian begun pacing back and forth in the kitchen.

"We were trying to piece together those four murders before. I thought they must have been the work of the Daehler kid, but it never quite matched up with his pattern."

Brian's pacing came to an abrupt stop. His gaze parted from the floor tiles to the eyes of his wife's. Her eyes were glazed and uncaring as what she had exposed was something of nightmares.

"I know that look Andrea." Brian shook his finger in front of her, "She's killed before. We taught her how to kill."

"We taught her how to kill werewolves and other evil creatures of the night. Not humans, not innocents." Andrea's voice rose higher, "She has done the unforgivable. And she is no daughter of mine."

"Don't say that." Brian shook his head and tried to grab hold of Andrea's shoulders. She shook him away and walked in the other direction.

"Why won't you accept it? Why must you keep mocking me with your indecisiveness. Our Sam is dead and he took Avery to the pits of hell with him. Our children are no longer with us and we need to get rid of the demonic shells that walk the earth and claim to be them." Andrea spat.

"I can't let you do this. What you're talking about is far worse than anything we ever planned." Brian matched her spite, "I won't let you lay a hand on either of them. This madness has gone on long enough."

"Then you're just as dead to me." Andrea deadpanned. Brian stood shocked. He couldn't even muster the strength to gawp. All he could do was stand and stare as the blinders around his eyes began to disappear; the bigger picture was shining through. Before he could get another word in Andrea had stormed out of the kitchen and vanished into some dark crevice in the Argent household.

He walked slowly out the front of the house and stared up into the night's sky. Above the moon was shining bright, but not full. A deep guilt sunk into his stomach as the weight of his actions seeped into his mind. He pictured Sam's face cradling the dead she-wolf and felt like he would be sick. As the feeling grew and grew he found himself lashing out and kicking at a pot plant in the Argent's front yard.

"I always hated that thing." Chris Argent's voice sounded from behind him. Brian swung around to face the other hunter, "Gerard gave it to Victoria and I as a wedding gift. Had a rare form of Wolfsbane in it, but I used it up ages ago hunting. Now it just sits out the front of the house as a constant reminder of my past."

Brian didn't respond as Chris continued, walking down the front steps.

"Gerard has wound his vines into this family and now he's corrupting yours. If we want to make things right, we've gotta get out the gardening shearers and start hacking away."

"Aren't we already in too deep now? The blood we've spilt is drowning." Brian replied.

"It's never to late to do what's right." Chris chuckled softly, clicking his car keys, "And I could use an extra hand putting things back into place."

Brian paused for a moment as Chris walked over to his car and opened the drivers door.

"Let's do it then." Brian finally nodded and got in the passengers side. Without hesitation the two were speeding off down the road on the path to redemption.

From inside the Argent's house Andrea stood watching from a window. Gerard came up behind her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. She ground her teeth tightly before Gerard lightly whispered to her, "It's starting."