"What?" Scott asks, confused, not for the first time, by the masked man's words. But the masked man seems to be done with talking. With a whistle, the Horsemen file into the room, their figures ominous in the damp darkness of the underground temple.
"Take the Halteseil." The man motions towards Stiles. "Kill the rest if you have to."
There is silence, a moment of pause right before all hell breaks lose. A noise like thunder seems to echo through the tunnels. Then there is a surge of forces, the Horsemen against the pack.
Scott runs up to two of the Horsemen, claws out, teeth sharp. He knows that logically, he has no chance against them, but that doesn't stop him from lashing out at them in any way he can. Malia is by his side, flipping up onto one of the horses to gain the upper hand. The sheriff is out of Scott's line of sight, indicating that he is probably protecting Lydia and Stiles. Scott hears a scream followed by a gunshot, and one of the Horsemen gets thrown back. He looks over his shoulder for a second and sees the sheriff and Lydia working together, forming a wall between the Horsemen and Stiles.
Lydia is using her powers to throw the Horsemen back, and the sheriff has his gun out, shooting at anything moving against him. Stiles has picked up a long piece of wood and seems to be using it as a bat. It's enough to make the corners of Scott's mouth lift a bit.
With renewed vigor, Scott jumps to attack the Horsemen in front of him and manages to take one down. Malia is out of his sight now, but he has all the confidence in the world that she's handling herself well. The fight begins to turns their way, the Horsemen getting overpowered. Scott believes, for one glorious second, that they might actually win this battle.
That's when more Horsemen gallop into the room, thunder following their arrival. Soon, they've got Scott and Malia cornered. Scott hears a cry of pain come from behind him, and he turns to see the sheriff on the ground, his leg bleeding. Lydia has been overpowered by the Horsemen, her screams cut of off by a hand to her throat. Stiles rushes to help his father, but he's grabbed by a Horseman in the process.
"Dad!" Stiles screams as they drag him towards the altar in the center of the room. Lydia struggles against the Horseman, a desperate fear in her eyes. It's all happening too fast.
"Stiles!" Scott yells, scratching and clawing at the Horsemen blocking him from saving his best friend. But it's no use; he can't get through. "Stiles!" Scott looks around frantically, but Malia is lying unconscious on the ground next to him, the sheriff is holding his bloody leg, and Lydia is still being held by the Horsemen.
The maksed man readies a knife while the Horsemen hold Stiles down next to the altar. The man dips the knife into a strange liquid then coats it in what looks like ash. Stiles is still struggling against the Horsemen, but it's no use. One of them punches him in the face causing blood to spray from his mouth ad nose. Scott hears Lydia make a suffocated noise; she sounds like she's dying.
"Mit diesem Schlüssel breche ich das Halteseil," he recites. "Mit diesem Messer verrenze ich den Geist und das Herz." He continues chanting these two lines until his knife is hanging directly over Stiles' heart. Scott watches as the masked man takes off his mask, a tear running down his cheek. He looks middle aged, but worn down. His eyes are sad and lost, a deep green the shade of leaves in a rainforest.
The man tenderly announces, "For Beverly," his expression swimming in grief. And then he plunges his knife into solid flesh. Except, Stiles isn't the person he stabs. A howl, full of pain and misery, comes from the man's victim. There is confusion for both Stiles and the masked man.
Everything seems to stop.
"Malia?" Stiles asks, her body covering his own. There is a moment of breathlessness, the kind where time stands still, before the man rips the knife from Malia's chest. Somehow, amidst the chaos, she managed to escape from the Horsemen's barricade. Malia's face reveals a world of pain. Scott can't believe his own eyes. This just cannot be happening.
"Maliaaaaaaa!" Lydia screams, the sound vibrating within the tunnels. It's more than just a banshee cry. It's filled with heartbreak and rage, the sound of a young girl losing yet another young friend. Strangely, the Horsemen seem to be affected by this. They contract in on themselves, backing away from the pack. Scott takes this as his moment to crash through them, and when he reaches the masked man, he doesn't hesitate to knock him out.
The man falls down, leaving the altar bare except for two bodies intertwined among the rubble. Scott watches as Stiles cradles Malia in his arms, her face growing pale. Waves of pain crash over him as he's forced to remember his last moments with Allison.
"I can't take your pain," he told her, confusion and worry seeping into desperation. Allison just smiled up at him, her expression wistful.
"That's because it doesn't hurt," she said, blood coating her lips.
"No," he cried, understanding that her death was imminent, but unable to accept it.
"It's okay."
"Allison." The tears were flowing freely now, rolling down his cheeks. He could hear her heart beginning to fail, could feel the slower beats as her blood stopped moving.
"It's okay, it's okay, it's okay." She reached her hand up to cradle his cheek. "It's perfect. I'm in the arms of my first love. The first person I ever loved. The person I'll always love. I love you. Scott. Scott McCall."
He remembers it all, every second of her death. He remembers begging her to stay, even though he knew it would do no good. He remembers the way her hand fell against the ground when her heart finally stopped all together. A tear was still falling down her cheek even as her body grew cold. He'll always remember holding her lifeless body in his arms, sobbing and wishing for all of it to be some horrible nightmare from which he could wake up.
Now he watches as it happens again, only it's not him and Allison this time. It's Stiles and Malia.