Chapter 12: Frenemy part 2

Jackson was glaring out at the chains holding him down when he heard keys moving at the door and it opening a moment later with Stiles coming on in. He closed the door after him and went to sit opposite him.

"Hey," Stiles mumbled. "I brought you some food."

"Let me out!" Jackson yelled. "Now!"

Stiles flinched and threw the bag he was holding down. "You know, I put those pants on you, alright buddy. One leg at a time. Being up close and personal with your junk wasn't the highlight of my day. Okay, so don't think this is fun for me either." He then ran a frustrated hand across his face before he pointed at him. "You know, not that you deserve it, but we are actually doing you a favor."

"This is doing me a favor?" he growled at him.

"Yes, jerkoff. You're killing people. To death. Yeah and until we could figure out how to stop you, you're going to stay in here. Sorry," he said rolling his eyes and not really meaning it. He then went for the bag and pulled out the sandwiches he picked up. "Now, you want the ham & cheese or the turkey club?" he asked holding them out for Jackson to see.

But Jackson kept his glare. "Do you actually think my parents won't be looking for me?"

Stiles then tossed the turkey sandwich to him before whipping out Jackson's phone. "Not if they think nothing's wrong," he said holding the screen to Jackson's face so that he could see the text message he sent out to Jackson's dad. "Yeah," he said at the look on his face.

Mr. Whittemore was at the sheriff's station showing the text message to Sheriff Stilinski from his phone.

"Mr. Whittemore," the sheriff said taking the phone. "Maybe I'm missing something but, uh, this doesn't exactly spell foul play."

But Mr. Whittemore just took the phone from him. "It reads: Stayed at a friend's house last night. Everything fine. Love you. Now, while we are as close as any family there are certain things that Jackson hasn't been able to say since the day that we told him he was adopted."

"Things like what?" asked the sheriff.

"Jackson never says…I love you."

That made the sheriff narrow his eyes. "Never?"

Mr. Whittemore shook his head. "Not once in eleven years."

Gerard had pulled Allison from one of her classes to see him in his office. She wondered what this was all about. He couldn't know that she knew about Jackson, could he?

"Who did you say that you were studying with tonight?" he asked her as he sat at his desk.

"Oh, just Lydia. We're prepping for our World History Mid-term."

That made Gerard smile. "History was one of my favorites. Especially military history. Ever hear the phrase: Know Thy Enemy?"

Allison nodded. "It's from The Art of War by Son Tzu."

"Very good. Do you know what it means?"

"In order to win a battle one must know everything about their enemy," she answered.

"Right again," he said with a slight nod. "Your father and I happen to be having that very problem. We've got an enemy that we know next to nothing. It's killed one of our own, among others."

"I've heard," she said in a small voice. So this was about Jackson. Or rather about the Kanima.

"Did you hear that Jackson Whittemore didn't show up to school today?"

Allison just raised her head and tried not to panic. "He didn't?"

"His parents called and so did the police. And, it seems that Sheriff Stilinski's boy Stiles also didn't show up for school today. Don't worry, I didn't say anything as it might be a little awkward given our family's recent history with the boy. Even yours."

"What?" Allison said before clearing her throat as her voice cracked a smidge.

Gerard smiled. "Well, given how Mr. Stilinski is Scott McCall's best friend, I imagine that all that drama had a hand in your breakup with the boy." Allison just stayed silent at that. "But, you see I don't really believe in coincidences. Especially when it comes to troubling circumstances." He then narrowed his eyes at her. "You wouldn't happen to know anything that would shed any kind of light on this, would you?"

Allison just shook her head. "No."

"Hmm…well, how about I tell you what I know. I know that a teenager's first instinct is to protect their friends. And," he said getting up from the chair and starting to walk to her. "I believe that my granddaughter would always want to protect her friends, even if it meant lying. So, I just want to ask one more question and this time, with a small advantage." He rested his hands onto her shoulders. "I'm not going to hurt you." He then put his forefinger at side of Allison's neck. "I just want to get a sense of your pulse. Think of it as a game. All you have to do is tell me the truth." He then leaned in. "Do you know anything about Jackson being missing?"

It was clear now what Gerard was doing. He was trying to feel if she was lying to him. Her only hope was to try her best to not do anything that makes her pulse betray her. Her heart was already beginning to race and she hoped that she could use that as a cover.

"No," she said.

"Is he in trouble?" he asked.

"I…I don't know."

"Does it have anything to do with Stiles missing as well? Or Scott?"

"No," she answered. "I mean, I don't know."

Gerard loosened a bit in his hold. "Your pulse jumped."

Allison then leapt from her chair to stare him down. "That's because you're scaring me!"

"Oh, I'm sorry sweetheart. I was definitely going way too far," he said with a small laughing smile.

"No kidding," she said dropping her gaze down.

"It wasn't right for me to use tactics like that. I'm sorry."

"Okay."

"You can go back to class." Allison then headed out but stopped when she noticed that a man was setting up a camera in the office. She looked back at Gerard who nodded at her. "Go ahead."

Allison moved through the halls to get to her next class but noticed that there were new cameras mounted everywhere. Her grandfather now had eyes everywhere in the school. No doubt to better watch the moves of her, Scott, Stiles and the new betas of Derek's pack. Allison was in her seat when she looked up as Scott came in to sit in his usual seat.

"Scott," she whispered to him. But Scott didn't look at her. "Scott," she tried again but to no avail. She tried to stand up to get his attention, and he did, but she had to sit back down.

A certain woman stepped into the classroom. Allison's mother.

"I'm afraid your teacher was feeling, ill today and had to leave early. So, unfortunately you're stuck with me as a substitute," she finished as she went to sit at the edge of her desk and smiled at the class. Or really at her daughter and Scott who were looking shell shocked at her. "Can anyone catch me up to speed on where we are?" She then turned her head at Scott. "Mr. McCall, how about you?"

Scott then went and got his book as he tried to look over his notes to try and remember where exactly they were supposed to be, even though there would be nothing in his book that did because he hadn't been keeping a level head in this class lately.

Back at the police van, Stiles was, calmly, try to explain to Jackson what was happening to him, for the tenth time. Jackson seemed to be treating this like an unamusing joke on his part.

"Scales?" Jackson asked dully. "Like a fish?"

"No, they're more like a reptile. Yeah, oh and your claws have this liquid that paralyzes people. It's what Derek used on you when he tested you. Oh, and you have a tail."

"I have a tail?" he asked with a small glare.

"Yeah, you have a tail."

"Does it do anything?"

"Quite a bit from what I've seen," he answered with flashbacks of getting hit in the torso with it and it coming down to whack at him while he was on the floor.

Jackson then tried to go for him but was stopped by the chains. "Can I use it to strangle you?" he hissed.

Stiles just rolled his eyes at him. "Jackson, in case you've forgotten, I'm a werewolf. Okay, without the claws and tail you're not really going to scare me all that much even if you weren't in chains." That just made Jackson slam his back against the van's wall with anger and some jealous spite leaking out of him for Stiles to smell. As well as disbelief. "You still don't believe me. Alright, the night of the semi-final game, what did you do right after?"

"I went home," he answered.

"You sure about that?"

"Yes, you idiot," Jackson hissed at him. "What the hell else would I do?!"

"You attacked me and Derek at the school and trapped us in the pool before you and I had a little fang and claw showdown. You also killed a mechanic, right in front of me by the way, that was lovely," he said dryly. "And one of Argent's hunters." He found that he wasn't feeling too broken up about that one. But there was one that he was torn about. "Oh, and last night you tried to kill Danny."

"Why would I want to kill my best friend?" he asked Stiles disbelievingly.

"Well that's what Scott's out there trying to figure out right now."

"Well maybe he should be trying to figure out how he's going to pay for a lawyer when I prosecute your asses all the way to jail!"

Stiles just shook his head. Jackson's emotions hit him full on and that only made the young werewolf feel sick at the sight of him. Stiles then flashed his gold eyes at Jackson to make him flinch back. "Try to remember Jackson, your threats may make Scott flinch but they don't work on me. And think carefully about pissing off Scott as he's the main reason that you're still alive to bitch right now." Stiles then made his eyes go back to normal as Jackson glare loosened a bit but his anger still remained. Stiles made to leave but stopped. "I still have one more thing to say. On the night of the first full moon, what happened?"

Jackson just shook his head. "Nothing. Nothing happened."

Stiles heard the rise in pulse and rolled his eyes as he went out the door to leave Jackson alone in the van.

When class was over, everyone started to rush out the door, especially Scott as he had many things to do before he got back to Stiles in the woods. Allison was on her own way out when her mother called her name to stop her.

"Yeah?" she asked as she looked back at her.

"It's come to our attention that you've been spending a great deal of time hanging out with Lydia Martin. You've also been calling her more often lately."

Allison smiled. "Yeah, well you and dad said that I should be watching her more carefully now. And, with everything that she's been through, I want her to feel like everything's still normal and okay."

Her mother nodded. "I know it's hard. Trying not to look at him," she said bringing it to what was really on their minds. Or rather who. She then got up and walked over to her. "Think about how strong it makes you. Especially when all of these other girls are letting their high school lives be defined by some boy that they hope will take them to Senior Prom."

"Can't I be strong and go to prom?"

"Of course," she said wrapping her arm around her and walking her to the door. "But with someone else." But then she stopped her and turned to narrow her eyes at her. "Remember," she said with a hard tone of voice. "So long as you stay strong, we won't have to kill a sixteen year old boy."

Allison looked at her mother, in fright for a moment, as Stiles' past warnings echoed in her head. She wasn't just worried about Scott now but about her own family if her mother's threat really did come to pass. So far, Stiles had scarred and broken three hunters who only tried to kill him. She looked at her mother and had a vision of her face scratched apart and her throat ripped open flash in her mind before she was let go and she ran off. Her mother's hard eyes staring after her.

Stiles was sending another text out to Jackson's dad, to tell him that he wasn't going to come home from school yet as he wanted to work out in the weight room with some of his teammates when a soft rustling made him stop. He tensed and put the phone down before bringing out his left hand's claws. He then heard the rustling get closer and he made to attack the intruder to find that it was Allison who flinched back in fright at the sight of Stiles' claws.

"Oh my god," Stiles huffed out as he stopped himself. "What are you doing?!"

But Allison shook her head. "They know."

"What?"

"They know Jackson's missing."

Stiles couldn't believe it. "No, they can't. I've been texting his parents since last night. They don't have a clue." How could they? Allison was making it sound that they knew something was off right away. He looked at the first text and didn't see anything off.

"My grandfather told me his parents went to the police. They know."

That means that his dad knows. And if he knows that something is wrong, then he would be trying to find Jackson through any means, like his phone. The one that he was holding right now. He was practically holding a flashing neon sign for them to go to. He started to freak out a bit before he went to the van's front seat to access the police radio. A message was playing for the officers to head to the preserve and await his dad's signal. Jackson was able to hear it too from the back.

Stiles then got into the driver's seat with Allison climbing in too.

"Where are we going?" she asked him.

Stiles dialed Jackson's mother. "Somewhere very far from this." He then threw the phone out of the window to have the police track it to the middle of nowhere before he drove them off to head to a different deep part of the woods.

Scott headed for the hospital to see Danny as he was in the process of checking out. The paralysis had worn off and he was cleared to go home.

"Are you sure that everything's okay between you and Jackson?" he asked Danny.

Danny shrugged. "Yeah. Everything's fine." Danny looked into his wallet and slammed it shut hard. "The cops have to take my fake ID?"

"You didn't do anything to make him angry?"

That made Danny chuckle. "How angry?"

"On a scale of 1 to 10. 1 being kind of irritated and 10 wanting to kill you," he said a little slowly at that last part before adding, "Violently."

"Jackson's kind of always been at a four. But, we're good. I was actually doing him a favor."

"What favor?"

"I was recovering a video for him. I put it on my tablet. Which is in the trunk of my car, and probably still at the club," he said in a defeated tone.

Footage? For Jackson to go to Danny about something like that then it had to be something important and would probably explain why Danny was attacked. "What was on the video?"

"I'm not really supposed to say?"

Now he knew that it was something important. "Danny, what if I told you that this could be a matter of life and death?"

"I'm not supposed to say?" Danny repeated.

Scott let out a breath and shook his head before the sight of Danny's wallet gave him an idea. "What if I told you that I could get your fake ID back?" Yeah, stealing an ID from evidence wouldn't be the most bizarre thing that he and Stiles had done.

Danny then told him what Jackson told him and Scott had everything that he needed. Now he had to find that tablet and get the footage. But before he could leave the hospital, he was halted by his mother.

"While I think that being here to check in on your friend is all sorts of commendable I have to play 'tough mom' right now. Even though I'm not very good at it."

Scott couldn't believe this. "Right now?"

"Yes, right now! I got a call from your principal. You're failing two classes?!"

He let his head slide. "Yeah, I know. That's why I'm studying with Stiles right now."

"Do you know that if you fail even one of your midterms that they are going to hold you back?" she asked harshly as she folded her arms at him.

Scott's face fell. "He said that?" Held back? He couldn't believe it.

"Yes," her mother hissed at him. "All of your friends are going to be juniors while you're still a sophomore. Understand Scott? You cannot fail."

"I know." His statement having meaning extending passed school.

"Okay. Thank you," his mother said letting him go.

Scott left the hospital and got on his bike as he rode off for the club. He spotted Danny car and went for the trunk to see if he could pry it open or something. However, he saw that someone had already broken in. He looked inside but found no trace of the tablet. Someone had taken it and had the footage. The footage of Jackson on the night of the full moon.

Scott made his way to the new spot where Stiles had chosen to take Jackson and saw that Allison was with him. He immediately told him everything that he found out and about the tablet. Stiles also told him that Jackson still wasn't believing the fact that he was now the Kanima.

"If he doesn't remember being the Kanima then he's not going to remember stealing Danny's tablet," Scott huffed out.

Stiles shook his head. "Why would he steal the thing if he didn't even know what's on it? Danny did it for him anyway. Why bother stealing it when he was going to give it to him?"

"What if someone else took it?" said Allison.

"Then someone else knows what he is," Stiles despaired.

"Which could mean that someone's protecting him," Scott threw in.

Allison nodded. "Right. The bestiary says 'The Kanima seeks a friend', right?"

Jackson leaned in closer as he strained to hear what the three of them were talking about from inside the van.

Something wasn't sitting right with Stiles on this. "Okay, hold on. So somebody watches Jackson make a video of himself turning into the Kanima then just erases part of it so that he wouldn't know? Who would do that?" Seeing a guy turning into a man sized lizard…editing footage wouldn't be the first impulse that they would have.

"Somebody that wanted to protect him?" Allison guessed.

"There's something else," said Scott as he looked to Stiles. "You said that the only thing you could find online about the Kanima is that it goes after murderers. What if that's actually true?"

Stiles shook his head. "No, it can't be. It tried to kill all of us, remember? I don't know about you two but I didn't murder anybody lately."

Scott shook his head. "I don't think it was actually trying to kill us." He looked over at Allison. "Remember when we were at Isaac's? It went right by us, didn't it?"

She nodded. "You're right, it just ran off."

Scott then looked at Stiles. "And it didn't kill you at the mechanic's garage."

"Well, yeah, but it tried to kill me and Derek in the pool."

"Did it?" Scott asked.

"Well yeah, it was waiting for us to come out. As soon as we did, it attacked."

"What if it was just trying to keep you in? And the reason it attacked you was because you did get out."

Stiles eyes widened as he shuddered. "Okay, why do I feel so violated all of a sudden?"

"Because there is something else going on and we don't know what it is. We don't know what is going on with Jackson or why someone is protecting him."

"Know thy enemy," Allison mumbled making both of the boys look at her. "Oh, it's just something my grandfather said."

Stiles just nodded. "Alright then. I got it. Kill Jackson. Problem solved."

Scott gave him a look as he could feel that Stiles was being serious this time and wasn't joking or being sarcastic. "He risked his life for us. Against Peter, remember that?!"

Stiles narrowed his eyes. "No Scott, I don't remember that. I remember Jackson threatening us. Blackmailing us. And then selling us out to the hunters. Remember that?!" he angrily huffed out. "I had to practically drag Jackson by the scruff of his neck to help out that night to make him fix the mess he helped make. And now we find out that he got the bite from Derek. It's funny how he still got what he wanted by supposedly risking his life for us. It's funny," he ended savagely.

Allison just looked at Stiles as he argued his case to kill Jackson to stop the Kanima with her eyes narrowed a bit.

"That doesn't mean he still not worth saving,' Scott argued back.

"Oh? And how are we supposed to save him Scott? Find the Alpha that bit him and have Jackson kill him? Because that idea worked so well for you, right?"

Scott shut his eyes, hard, for a moment before he opened them again. "We'll think of something. We just need some more time."

"Well I don't think we have that time Scott!" Stiles all but roared out which made both Scott and Allison flinch a bit. Stiles let out a breath to dispel some of the tension he was feeling. He then pointed to the van. "You want us to put our necks even further on the line for him? For Jackson? The guy that we just found out risked our secrets and our lives just so he could have a sick souvenir?"

"He doesn't know what he's doing," Scott said back.

"So what?" Stiles shot back.

"So I didn't either," Scott argued. "Remember, when I almost killed you and Jackson?" he said to Allison who nodded. "I had someone to help me. He has nobody."

Stiles kept the glare up. "Yeah, well that's his own fault. Do you remember what Derek told you? Sometimes the shape you take reflects the person you are? Personally, I would've put money down on him turning into a donkey considering how much of a jackass he's always been but I guess that a reptilian monster is another way to go. Okay, Jackson has always been a spineless, scaly, slimy, cold blooded snake in the grass and now it's on the outside for everyone to see!" He then looked at Allison. "That's probably why the Kanima is supposed to seek a friend. It's because Jackson isn't capable of being one at all. I told him about him attacking Danny and it didn't faze him. He said that Danny was his best friend and yet all I got from him when I told him that he nearly killed him was anger and annoyance. He didn't feel the slightest bit of shame or fear at all on that. Or about those other people he killed. All that matters to him was why he wasn't a powerful werewolf."

"Isaac, Erica and Boyd, they also let the power go to their heads but we still don't want anything to happen to them either," Scott pointed out.

"That's different Scott. They didn't really know what they were getting into. Jackson did." With Peter, Derek and the hunters on him, as well as the knowledge of Peter behind the animal attacks and the attack on Lydia, Jackson didn't share that excuse. "He doesn't care about anything or anyone other than himself and when he does show some concern it's because he wants something. It's only been about him feeling like he's the 'top dog' around here," he said using air quotes. "That's why we're even in this mess to begin with. He couldn't handle that he wasn't the center of attention for five freaking minutes and that we were better than him at something that he tried everything to try and knock us down and then try to make himself be better than us when he found out our secret. Well, I hope he thought it was all worth it because those people he paralyzed and killed probably don't. We have to do something now before he ends up killing someone else. Jackson brought this all on himself."

Scott just let Stiles rant on the whole thing. He could understand why Stiles was angry. Scott wasn't feeling any better about this. The thought that they would have to do this, for Jackson of all people, wasn't easy to bear. On some level, he knew that Stiles had a point. Many points when it came to Jackson. But Scott didn't want to face the alternative. And he knew that even though Stiles was arguing for it, he didn't want to either. He was probably thinking that Jackson had given them no other choice.

"It doesn't matter," Scott said softly. "We can't let this get personal Stiles. Okay? You're right. Something inside him made the bite turn him into the Kanima and set him off to attack and kill all those people. And maybe he doesn't care about it…but we do. He did all this because he thinks we are better than him, right? So let's be better and help him even if he wouldn't do the same for us. If we can save him…then we should still try."

Stiles looked at him for a moment as Scott stared back at him with those soft brown eyes and Stiles found himself deflating. He didn't know if he felt tired from letting all of his feelings about Jackson out like that or if Scott told him what he needed to hear. Maybe it was both as Stiles ran a hand down the back of his head and then he nodded. "Alright, fine. I'm with you. We try to save him," he said in agreement.

Scott nodded and he looked over at Allison who nodded as well.

Over in the van, Jackson shut his eyes as a tear fell as he silently went over everything that both of them just said about him. He looked down at his hands and then he saw what looked like scales start to cover his left palm. The sight of it started to freak him out.

Stiles went home as he left Scott to do his turn of guard duty as he said that he wanted to start on the homework that Scott managed to collect for him. However, before he would do that, he would work on the latest bit of intel that Scott and Allison gave him. The one where Allison's mom had to step in for a teacher at the school and was now working there in their place. He had a feeling that the Argents might have 'tweaked' the circumstances a little like he suspected they did with Principal Thomas.

He got to his room and went for his box of collected evidence against the Argents but his face fell when he took it from his hiding spot. It felt light. He took it to his bed and opened it to find that the box was empty. All the printed files and photos he collected were all gone. The drive where he had a copy of those files, as well as the audio file of Chris Argent's threat, was gone too. He went to his laptop. He had it all backed up in there. But he looked to see that it had been deleted.

"No. No. No!" he said as he slammed a hand angrily down on the desk.

It was gone. All of it. Everything to stop the Argents once and for all. Gone.

Scott was standing guard at the van as the sun had long set. Scott had many things on his mind and he resisted the urge to slam his head into a nearby tree to let them loose. But, he smiled when he heard the familiar sound of Allison's car pull up nearby. He went over to it and hopped in.

"Hey," Allison said as he shut the door behind him.

"Hey. So, Stiles told me that he's heading for Lydia's to check on her. He's hoping that he can get her to forgive him for promising to talk to her and then ditching her at her car."

Allison let a small smile loose. She felt sorry for Stiles on that. "That's not easy to explain."

Allison then looked over at the van while Scott looked out in the distance.

"How did your dad know where I'd be last night? He was there in the alley. Him and Gerard."

Allison looked back at him. "They have people," she explained softly. "Guys who monitor every camera in town. ATM's. Traffic cameras. Have you seen the ones they put up in school?" Scott nodded but Allison raised her eyebrows at him. "You thought I told him?"

Scott shook his head. "No," he said quickly. "I just-" he trailed off.

Scott didn't know why he even started that. He guessed that Stiles words were starting to get to him. Lately, it seemed that Stiles was starting to have good points and was being more right about all the things that were going on in town lately. And with his recent accusations about Allison and her family, on top of Gerard stabbing and threatening him, he was starting to worry that there could be a real chance he was right about Allison too. That she couldn't be trusted.

"I'm on your side Scott," she said to him. "I'm always on your side."

Allison was telling him the truth. He didn't need his enhanced senses to tell him that. Stiles was wrong. He knew that. "I know," he said softly to her. "I know, I'm sorry," he said taking her hand in his before moving to kiss it. "I'm sorry." He then let a frustrated breath loose. "It's just…I thought that things would get back to normal by now. Or at least normal enough that I could pass my classes," he added a little amusingly.

Allison smiled at him. "You'll pass," she assured him.

They then went to embrace one another. As they were starting to lose each other in the moment, Jackson was starting to tense up. The scales that had made their way to his hand were now starting to spread up into his arm. His breathing was starting to intensify and his heart started pounding.

But Scott was oblivious to it as Allison turned on some music for them.

"I felt like I was going to fall asleep in your arms," she explained.

"I like it when you fall asleep in my arms."

"I don't. I wake up and you're always gone," she explained.

Scott closed his eyes a bit. "That's because I don't want to wake you."

"I rather just wake up with you."

Scott smiled. "You will." But then his smile dropped a bit. "High School's only…two more years."

Allison groaned. Two more years. And by then, Scott wouldn't classed as a 'boy' by her parents' code and would then be fair game for them. "This is hard enough for normal people to get through."

They let that sad thought stew in the air for a moment.

Then Scott thought of something. "Hey, what would you say if I could be normal?" Allison looked at him, confused. "I've been thinking since we saw her at the hospital. Lydia, she was bit by the Alpha, right? Peter told Stiles that if the bite doesn't turn you then it'll kill you. But nothing happened to Lydia."

Allison's eyes narrowed. "Meaning…meaning what? She's immune?"

Scott nodded. "Yeah, and if she is…doesn't immunity mean that you could be cured?" Lydia could hold the key for him going back to normal. He then separated from her and looked her straight in the eyes. "Would you want that?" He knows that he would want it. He didn't ask for any of this and would take any chance he had to be normal again.

"I want anything that lets me be with you," she answered. "Not just until the end of high school."

"Well then better be til the end of college. My grades suck," he added lightly.

Allison shook her head. "Not just until college." Scott stared at her. "I'm serious."

"I know." He then grabbed her face lightly. "I know," he said before starting to lean in closer.

Scott and Allison then kissed lightly for a few moments before the air in the car started to heat up for them. They then started to reach and pull for each other's clothes as their make out session intensified. Allison moved to lightly push Scott into the back seat of the car as Scott carefully took her top off. They were kissing and groping every corner of the other's body that they could get too. The car was filled with the sounds of the radio's soft music and their moans, gasps and groans.

Jackson was in the van watching as his body started to be overtaken by scales and his body started to burn with heated intensity. His body started to shake uncontrollably as the scales went to his neck and started to overtake his face. His teeth started to get longer as they morphed into the Kanima's sharp cutting rows and his arms moved to break the cuffs that he was bound in. Soon, his whole body started to twist and change as his body became full of scales and his tail emerged. The Kanima was back and it broke right through the back doors unbeknownst to the young couple in the car not too far away.

Stiles was pulling his jeep up to where they had stashed the van. He tried to go and see Lydia but she hadn't been home so he decided to check in with Scott. He looked on ahead to see that there was a car nearby, Allison's, and realized that she must have come to see Scott. He got out and started to make his way to it when his jaw dropped as he got a closer look at the van. He then ran over to the car and was relieved to see that Scott and Allison weren't dead. But that was only for a second before he saw how they actually were and then pounded on the window startling the naked couple.

"Hey," he grunted to them. "Sorry to bother you but I think you might want to come and take a look at this." As soon as they were dressed, Scott and Allison followed Stiles to the van to see that the door was busted open and Jackson was gone. "It was like this when I got here. Who knows how long ago he got out," he explained to them with a mild glare.

Allison started to get pale. "I have to tell my father." Scott then started to pace off as the gravity of the situation started to hit him. "He's going to kill someone."

Scott nodded. "Okay. Okay tell him," he said looking defeated.

Stiles gave Allison a look before looking at his friend. "You can't be serious. You still think that we can trust them?"

"We can trust my dad. I know we can," Allison argued. "We can't do this by ourselves anymore. We need help."

Stiles went to angrily kick some dirt to the side.

"This is all my fault," Scott muttered.

Allison shook her head. "No, it's not."

"She's right," Stiles nodded. "It's not just yours Scott." He then pointed to the two of them. "It's both of yours." That got her and Scott to look over at him.

"Stiles," Scott started.

"No Scott," he cut in. "I don't think you appreciate just how screwed we are. Okay, we had him. We did do this ourselves," he gave Allison a look. "And we lost him because you two decided to hookup in your car instead of watch the reptilian killer monster. One we were lucky to catch the way we did. Now, he's loose and anyone that he kills from here on out will be on us because you guys couldn't stay focused on something besides you two." He then looked over at Scott. "You were able to trust me Scott to watch him and I trusted you. I guess it's my fault too," he said slightly scolding.

Allison thought that was a bit unfair for Stiles to say. It's not like they chose to ignore Jackson. They just made…a mistake. "Stiles," she started.

"Allison, no," Scott cut in. "He's right...this is our fault."

"And Scott, if you are serious about still trying to save Jackson, then we can't let the Argents know," he said disregarding that Allison was there to hear him say this. "If we let them know then they will kill him without batting an eye. Unless you think that the Argents will listen to you as well as I did," Stiles pointed out.

Scott thought back to when Allison's father threatened him in the woods and in his kitchen as well as her grandfather stabbing him outside the hospital.

Allison exhaled as she saw Scott run his hand across his face. It looked like he was agreeing against her going to her father. She couldn't help but feel a bit mad that Scott was with Stiles when he had argued against his plan to save Jackson at the beginning. But she quickly shook it off. "Then what do we do now?" she asked them.

"Maybe you should see if you could find out more about the Kanima from the bestiary," Scott suggested. "It might help us find him and...maybe even cure him."

Stiles went to put pressure on his eyes. "Scott, I think I might have to tell my dad. If more people are going to show up dead, I think he has to know why."

Scott nodded in agreement.

Allison widened her eyes at Stiles. "You're really going to tell your dad? How are you going to convince him of any of this? Are you going to tell him-"

"About me?" Stiles guessed. "About us?" he said looking over at Scott. "I'm actually hoping that he'll believe me without doing that."

Scott then flashed his gold eyes. "If he's going to believe it, looks like we'll have to."

Stiles huffed. He was afraid of this.

Allison went home and caught sight of her grandfather in the living room by the fireplace.

"Hello sweetheart," he said as she walked in.

"Hey," she said softly to him. She noticed that there seemed to be something burning in the fireplace. "What are you doing?"

"Oh," he said looking at the papers he was getting ready and set to burn. "Just getting rid of some junk files."

Allison nodded before she headed upstairs. Gerard watched her go before his eyes fell down onto the pile where there were some pictures of himself, Chris and Victoria as well as papers on the hunters in his employ and a file on the former principal and his form of resignation that had notes around it saying that it was forged. He then picked up a flash drive and tossed it into the flames.

Allison made her way to her room and turned on the lamp when she nearly jumped at the sight of Lydia on her bed. "You scared the hell out of me."

Lydia just looked at her. "I've been sitting here for an hour waiting for you."

Allison went to put her things away. "I can't hang out right now Lydia," she slurred out.

"I don't need anyone to 'hang out' with. I need someone to talk to."

"I, I understand that it must be important but if it can just wait-"

That got Lydia to stand up from the bed. "Why is everyone always telling me to wait? Why can't anyone have 'right now' available?"

"You can't have everything right now," Allison argued. "Okay, you know what I need? I need someone to translate 5 pages of archaic latin. I could see that's not going to happen any time soon," she said gesturing her shoulders out in a huff.

Lydia shrugged and folded her arms. "I know archaic latin," she said.

Allison turned to look at her. "You know archaic latin?" she asked in disbelief.

"I got bored with classical latin," Lydia explained like it was no big deal.

That made Allison's face fall. "Just how smart are you?"

Lydia just brought her hand out. "Just show me the pages."

Over at the sheriff's station Scott and Stiles walked on in with their faces full of dread. They got to the offices and Stiles nodded to the deputy on duty.

"Can you buzz us in?" he asked the guy. "I need to see my dad."

The guy unlocked the door for them and Stiles went and opened it but didn't move on in. Scott just stayed back with him.

"You ready for this?" he asked Stiles.

Stiles let a breath loose. "No," he grunted out before he started to move on in.

The two of them headed for the sheriff's office but froze when they saw that Jackson was there too, fully human. The two of them looked on as Jackson turned to give the two of them a smug looking expression. It was cut off when the sheriff stepped into their line of sight.

"Scott. Stiles. Perfect timing," he said to them. Both of them could practically choke on the annoyance and spite he was exuded. Stiles' dad then pointed to the man behind him. "Have you met Jackson's father, Mr. David Whittemore? Esquire."

"That means lawyer," Jackson supplied.

Scott and Stiles shared an annoyed look as it looked like things took a complicated step into getting worse.

Back at Allison's room, Lydia finished translating the passage that Morrell had read to Allison in her office. However, Lydia's translation was slightly different to the one that Morrell gave her.

"Are you sure? Ms. Morrell said that word means friend. The Kanima seeks a friend," she asked Lydia to make sure that she got it right.

But Lydia shook her head. "She was wrong. It means master."

"The Kanima seeks a master?" she gasped out.

Lydia just raised an eyebrow and left the desk. "Why? Is that important?"

"Yeah," Allison muttered to herself. "Someone's not protecting him. Someone's controlling him," she realized with horror.