Chapter 23: Master Plan

After securing their two catches back at their house, Chris and Allison went with the last contact they had left to call and headed for the high school as per Gerard's instructions to enact the next part of his plan. They pulled in the lot close by the lacrosse field. The hunter with them was texted to meet with Gerard in the school while Allison and Chris moved to get into position. The father and daughter duo was at a quiet space close by the field as they saw that they had made it with less than a minute left in the game. They saw that Beacon Hills now the ball. The player passed it off to another player who started to move through the opposition, too gracefully to be normal.

"There's Stiles," Allison said narrowing her eyes on him.

"Yeah," Chris muttered before he moved to put a case to the ground.

He opened it to reveal a small collection of custom made metallic darts. Chris then moved for his gun but it was grabbed before he could get it.

"I'll take the shot," Allison said at him.

Chris eyed his daughter. "Allison," he started.

"We don't have time to argue," she said again more forcefully. "Okay, you're stronger than me so it makes sense for me to take it. I take the shot and you go in and grab him when Gerard gives us the signal. You know it makes sense."

Chris eyed her with his eyes narrowed a bit. "And that's the reason you want to do this? Because it makes sense?"

Allison eyed him with narrowed eyes now. "Is there a reason that you're actually fighting me on this? This was yours and Gerard's plan, right?"

Chris let out a frustrated puff of air before he went and held out the dart for Allison. "Be careful to not hit anyone else."

She reached over and grabbed it from him. "I won't miss."

Chris went to move into position as Allison went and loaded the gun with the dart. She saw Stiles start roaring as he got the winning goal and then separated from the team. He froze for a moment and then started to remove his helmet. She caught a glimpse of his face and saw some kind of panic set in as he then took his gloves off and thought that he must sense that there was some kind of danger. She took aim just as the first light went off. That was the signal and she pulled the trigger and the dart flew off and struck him at back of his neck. Stiles started to stumble a bit as another set of lights went out. Then the rest of the lights started to flicker off until the whole place was dark. Allison moved for the van and started it up. A moment later, her father stumbled in and threw a now unconscious Stiles into the back of the van. She then quickly pulled them out of the parking lot and headed for their house as she saw the lacrosse field's lights start to come back on from her rear view mirror.

Stiles started come to and found himself on the floor of a semi-dark room. He felt something at the back of his neck and reached and pulled out what he made out to be some kind of fancy dart or something. It was a little too dark to be sure as he could barely make out the sight of his own hand so he just put it in his pocket. There seemed to be some light coming from above him and he could make out some stairs which made him guess that he was in a basement of some kind. Stiles then heard something off in the dark but couldn't really make out what it was. He backed up into the wall and started to feel around for a lightswitch and flicked it on when he found one. The place lit up and he saw that he was in a basement and he wasn't alone. Stiles' eyes widened and his teeth bared out in a mix of anger and horror. Hanging from their wrists by wires and rope were a gagged and frightened Boyd and Erica.

The gurney with Jackson's body bag was loaded into the ambulance though no one seemed to notice the small amount of clear liquid leaking out from a space where the bag was unzipped. The doors were then shut by a paramedic and Melissa McCall.

"Thanks for your help," the paramedic said to her. "But we could take it from here."

But Melissa wasn't ready to leave this just yet. "You know, I'm going to have to give a statement. Why don't I ride with you?"

The paramedic started shaking her head. "You know, I think that would be a little-"

"Perfect," Melissa said cutting off her attempts to let her go politely before she went to hop into the seat in the front.

The paramedic sighted. "Right." She then went for the driver's seat to pull the ambulance out.

Melissa looked out the window towards the school and hoped that Scott would be okay and find Stiles. She knew how frantic the sheriff must be feeling without understanding what was going on. Heck, she understood half of what was going on and was frantic just the same.

Scott and Isaac were in the locker room with the sheriff as he was collecting statements from everyone. The two of them didn't really have much to tell him, even if they wanted to tell him everything.

"Okay," he sighed out. "I'm going to meet with the medical examiner and try to find out what happened with Jackson. I've got an APB out on Stiles. His jeep is still in the parking lot so that means…" But he just started branching off. "Hell, I don't know what that means," he muttered more to himself than them. That made both Scott and Isaac's faces fall a bit. "If he answers his phone. If he answers his e-mails, if you see him."

"We'll call you," Isaac said with a nod.

Scott shrugged and tried to give him a reassured smile. "Look, he's probably just freaked out from all the attention or something. We'll find him."

The sheriff nodded. "Yeah." He then started to head off. "I'll see you, okay?" he said before he made his way out.

As the sheriff left, Scott and Isaac were joined by the Coach.

"McCall," he said drawing their attention. "Hey, we need you back on the team. You know I can't let you play next season if you don't get your grades up."

"Yeah. I know Coach," Scott answered softly.

Coach then let his head drop a bit. "I…I know I yell a lot but it's not like I hate you guys. Well, I kinda hate Greenburg, you know, makes a difference with Greenburg," he added with a smile before it fell. "I'm just saying, we need you on the team. Get your grades back up," he said seriously to him.

Scott nodded. "I will."

"I know." He took a step away from them but then stepped back. "Oh, and if you find Stilinski before I do, tell him that I appreciate that he saved his Houdini act until after the game was over. And if he can find a way to clean up his disappearing issues then he could look forward to a prime spot next season too."

"Yeah, definitely," Scott nodded with a small smile.

Coach then went off and left the two werewolves alone. The locker room seemed to be empty but them now.

"Is that everyone?" Scott asked.

Isaac went off and scanned the room. "I think so." He then heard the sound of metal screeching and looked back to see that Scott had ripped the door from Stiles' locker off its hinges. Scott then started to go for his clothes. "You're going to find him by scent?"

"Yeah, we both are," he said as he tossed Isaac Stiles' sneaker.

Isaac eyed it and the shirt in Scott's hands. "How come you get his shirt and I get a shoe?"

But Scott didn't answer. He froze as he saw that they were now joined by Derek.

"We need to talk," he said to him.

Behind him, stepped out his uncle Peter. "All of us."

Scott's eyes widened and his jaw fell a bit. "Holy Shit," he said as he looked at the sight of him. The last time he had seen Peter was when Derek had slashed his throat open. He then looked to Derek. "What the hell is this?"

But Derek shrugged. "You know I thought the same thing myself when I saw you talking to Gerard at the sheriff's station."

"Okay, hold on. He threatened to kill my mom," Scott quickly defended himself. "And I had to get close to him, what was I supposed to do?"

"I'll go with Scott on this one," said Peter drawing all of their eyes on him. "I mean, have you seen his mom? She's gorgeous."

"Shut up!" Derek and Scott shouted at Peter making him roll his eyes.

Isaac leaned in close to Scott. "Who is he?"

"That's Peter, Derek's uncle." Scott said. "A little while back he tried to kill all of us and we lit him on fire and Derek slashed his throat."

Peter then waved at him. "Hi."

"Good to know," Isaac mumbled.

"How is he alive?" Scott asked.

"Look," Derek grunted. "The short version is that he knows how to stop Jackson. Maybe how to save him."

That made Scott and Isaac share a look.

Isaac shrugged. "That's very helpful…except Jackson's dead."

"What?" Derek asked as he and Peter's faces fell in surprise.

"Yeah," Scott nodded. "Jackson's dead, it just happened on the field."

"Okay, why is no one taking this as good news?" Isaac asked when he saw Derek and Peter looking at each other in concern.

"Because if Jackson is dead then it didn't just happen," Peter started. "Gerard wanted it to happen."

"But why?" asked Derek.

Peter stepped forward. "That's exactly what we need to figure out. And something tells me the window of opportunity is closing, quickly."

"You're going to have to look into this without me," said Scott. "I have to go out there and find Stiles."

"Stiles?" Peter straightened up. "I was wondering why he wasn't here. What happened to him?"

"We don't know," said Isaac. "He disappeared when everything started happening."

"I think I can guess what happened to him," Derek said with a frown as he caught Scott's eye.

"Gerard," Scott mumbled.

"Oh, an Argent was involved no doubt," Peter said swaying back a bit as he looked over at Scott. "But I have a feeling that this one wasn't Gerard."

"Erica! Boyd!"

Stiles moved over to them as they looked at him and seemed to be trying to say something through their gags. Stiles wiped some sweat off his forehead as he saw some spots of blood on their clothes. Small holes were there like from bullets. His hand touched them and Stiles suddenly gasped in a big glop of air as he felt a rush inside his own head. He suddenly saw himself in the woods and felt a rush of pain as his body took in arrow after arrow. He looked up and saw Allison's face look down at him with no small amount of affection or mercy as she kept letting arrow after arrow fly at him. He then let go and he felt somewhat out of breath. Now he knew where exactly they were and knew that he had to get them all out of here. He turned and quickly grabbed for a nearby chair and went over to Erica first and tried to pull her down but his hand was shocked the moment that touched the rope.

"Damn," he spat out.

"They tried to warn you." Stiles looked over and saw Gerard starting to move down the stairs with a small smile on his face. "It's electrified."

Stiles looked further up and noticed the wiring running from the ceiling and attached to some kind of high tech electrical battery system. He then stepped down from the chair and turned to face the hunter. "What are you doing with them?"

Gerard calmly went and let himself lean against the wall. "At the moment, just keeping them comfortable. There's no point in torturing them. They won't give Derek up. The instinct to protect their Alpha is too strong."

"So you're just torturing them for the pure pleasure of it then," he mumbled back at him.

Gerard smirked at him. "I won't deny, there is quite a certain…euphoria about inflicting pain on your enemy. I'm sure you felt it. All those times you attacked my men. Broke them and even savagely marked them. Tell me Mr. Stilinski, I'm curious, what was on your mind as you were doing that? Didn't you feel a degree of pleasure, relief…or maybe even power as you tore into them?"

Stiles just stared at him for a moment. He was silently staring him down before he finally started talking. "Why did you bring me here? Scott will find me you know and whatever hold you think you had on him broke off when you took me from the field."

"I can hear the conviction in your voice Stiles. You have a great deal of faith and loyalty towards Scott. But, he may not be as committed to you as you are to him. After all, Scott didn't really put that much of a fight when he betrayed your trust and stole all your work from your house. Simply put the chance of a future with Allison on the table and Scott handed me everything on a silver platter."

Stiles' jaw tightened a bit but he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "You may have gotten to Scott, but don't think you'll get to me the same way."

"Oh? There's no denying that you're a clever one Mr. Stilinski. From what I understand it was your idea to lock Jackson in a prison transport van in the woods. I'll admit that it was an ingenious and crafty idea. I wonder if you get that from your father. He's quite the respectful and capable man, it would be a shame if anything happened to a good and upstanding member of this town's community."

At the mention of his dad, Stiles' teeth started to grind against each other. "Threatening my dad was a big mistake. I like Scott but he can be too nice sometimes even when it comes to threats." "Outside Allison," he added silently. "But not me," he finished.

"No," Gerard chuckled. "I didn't think so. But I'm more than prepared for it."

Stiles glare faded and was quickly replaced with an amused look of cynicism. "Really? Dude you gotta be what, 90 years old? Your hunter cronies aren't here to help you and neither is Jackson. What's to stop me from sending you to live the rest of your golden years hooked to a respirator?"

That only made Gerard's smirk widen. "Well, if you're so confident Stiles, as you kids say: bring it."

Stiles took a look over at the hanging Boyd and Erica and then stomped over for Gerard. He made to just push the man (hard) against the wall but Gerard moved and caught his hand at his wrist in a tight grip. Stiles was surprised and tried to pull his hand free but found himself caught in Gerard's hold. He threw his other hand down to draw out his claws but he saw that they weren't coming out instantly like they were supposed to. They were drawing out very slowly. Not only that but he was starting to find himself a little out of breath.

"What?" he gasped out.

But Stiles then shut his eyes and cringed as he felt something pierce his stomach. He opened his eyes and looked down to see that Gerard had jammed a knife right into him. Stiles semi-clawed hand reached for the hand holding the knife but found that he couldn't pull it away.

"You've got guts Mr. Stilinski. A rare thing to find someone with a spine and a brain with your generation but still no match for my own." Gerard then twisted the knife drawing out a pained grunt as Stiles shut his eyes as he tried to fight the pain. "Through the pain, I'm sure you're wondering how I'm even able to do this." Stiles opened his eyes and looked into Gerard's smirking face. "That little dart you had been hit with was loaded with a special chemical cocktail of sedatives topped with wolfsbane. My own creation; made when I was just a little older than you actually. Weakens werewolves and hinders their abilities for a good while."

Gerard then pushed Stiles and he moved backwards and lost his balance as he fell to the ground. Gerard grabbed the front of his jersey to lift him up and then gave him a hard punch across the face. Stiles tried to fight him off but Gerard then went to the knife still stuck in Stiles and twisted it to have the pain sap Stiles strength. He then started to alternate between punching Stiles and twisting the knife. The sounds of Gerard's hits and Stiles pained cries echoed in the basement as both Boyd and Erica watched Stiles getting beaten before them. Their eyes watered from tears and their mouths made muffled sounds as they cried behind the tape in front of their mouths.

Melissa McCall walked into the morgue in the hospital and looked off at the body bag laid out on a gurney in the center of the room. She knew that Jackson and her son weren't exactly friends but she still felt bad for him. But that grief and sadness turned to tension and fear when she noticed some kind of clear liquid leaking and dripping from the holes in the bag. She went over and carefully unzipped it and gasped at what she saw inside.

Chris moved for Allison's room and was about to knock but stopped when he saw that Allison and Gerard seemed to be in deep conversation. They both stopped and looked over at him when they heard him step in.

"I saw the lights flicker," he said to them.

"Probably just one of our guests getting comfortable downstairs," Gerard shrugged off. He then looked back at Allison. "Get some sleep if you can. I have a feeling that the next 24 hours are going to be eventful," he said a little amusingly as he made his way out of the room towards Chris.

But Chris moved his arm to block his way and looked him square in the face. "You going to tell me what happened at the game?"

Gerard leaned back a bit but didn't lose his smiling composure. "Didn't you hear? We won."

Chris narrowed his eyes further. "I meant Jackson."

Gerard then went and brought Chris' arm down. "So did I. Be sure to administer another dose of the compound to our new guest. I have to go and make an appearance." He then left.

Chris went for his daughter as she started to fully take off her hunting gear. She was barely sparing him a look.

"Need something?" she asked half interested.

"I want you to step aside and let us handle this," he told her sternly.

Allison rolled her eyes. "You're kidding right?"

"One of your friends is dead," he started.

Allison cut him off. "Because of Derek. "How do you think Jackson became that thing in the first place? Kate, Mom, Jackson."

"What about Scott?" he asked cutting her off. "His friend is missing and he's probably trying to find him right now. Do you honestly think he's not going to find out about this?"

Allison's jaw tightened before she let a frustrated huff out from her nose. "Well Stiles brought this on himself when he decided to join Derek. Have you forgotten that he attacked mom with Derek? Or how about all those people he hurt, our people. He started on that before he joined Derek and his pack. And now Gerard tells me that they're all dead. Ripped apart by him. How long did you think it would be until he came after you, me or Gerard?"

"Is that what you're going to tell Scott when he finds out about what happened to him?"

Allison froze for a moment before she inhaled deeply. "He'll understand," she said before a small smirk found its way to her face. "Besides, last I checked, you wanted us to have nothing to do with each other."

Chris moved his hands to his hip. "Allison, I'm not blind. Did you honestly think that I didn't know that you and Scott had still been seeing each other all this time? Your visits to Lydia and the late nights sneaking out of the house."

Allison snorted. "Now you're saying that you're worried about how me and Scott will be after this? Since when did you start caring about Scott and my relationship with him?"

"I care about you."

Allison sucked on her teeth. "Really dad? If you're going to start quoting from the list of the top 5 things that a parents should tell a child every day why don't you start with: I'm proud of you because I'm doing exactly what you wanted," she said as she moved off with a smile for her bed.

Chris shook his head. "No Allison. You're doing exactly what he wants. We all are."

"Dad, I'm tired. I just really want to pass out, okay?"

He exhaled deeply at the way that she was just dismissing him like this. "Fine."

"By the way," she said before he could get too far. "Don't forget that you owe me a new bow."

Allison quickly turned to face him again when she heard a loud rip. Chris then raised his arm to show her that her crossbow was now ruined.

"And a new crossbow," he said before he slammed it down onto the table before leaving.

Chris moved downstairs for the basement where he saw that Erica and Boyd had their eyes open and wide as they looked upon him. He then looked over at the wall where Stiles was standing as his hands were bound to the wall by a padlocked hand restraint. His head was drooped down and he seemed to not be conscious. His face was sporting bruises and a cut lip that weren't healing as the wolfsbane in his system was hindering it and most of his strength was no doubt trying to heal the area around where the knife was still imbedded in him. The only sounds apart from the whimpering of the two conscious werewolves whimpering was the soft hum of the electrical wiring zapping them as well as a soft dripping sound. Chris saw that it was the sound of Stiles' blood, leaking from the knife wound and was dripping onto the floor in an over an inch long puddle.

Chris saw the syringes set up already on a table close by him. Gerard told him to inject him with more as they couldn't run a current through a third werewolf without shorting out everything. Chris' hands took the nearest ready syringe but his eyes fell and narrowed on the blade. He didn't feel comfortable driving the syringe into the teen when he already had a knife in him. He put it down and went to the handle of the knife and pulled it out. Stiles' eyes sprang open and Chris saw the glow from his eyes. The golden glow before his eyes closed again as he seemed to pass out again. But Chris was still as his spine had chilled from the color of Stiles' eyes. They weren't blue like they were supposed to be now. That could only mean one thing. Chris shook himself out of it and then went over to get the key and unlocked the restraint holding Stiles up. As soon as it was unlocked, Stiles started to fall for the ground but Chris moved to catch him before he could fall over completely. He had Stiles by the arms and it seemed like the teen was starting stir a bit.

"Stiles?" Chris said to him as he tried to softly slap his face.

But Chris' concerned expression turned to pain when Stiles' left hand grasped his left arm hard and his right hand started to dig into his right one. Stiles had his claws partially out and he ran his hand down as he clawed his arm from below his elbow to just before his wrist. Stiles shot his golden eyes open and he then went and threw Chris right into the wall where he crumpled down onto the floor.

Stiles was breathing hard at the sight of the fallen hunter as he was wobbling slightly where he stood. He then set his golden eyes onto to other two. He started to limp slightly to the generator where he switched it off before he pushed it down to the ground where it started to smoke almost as soon as it made contact with the floor.

Soon enough, Erica and Boyd were moving out the door as they were struggling with helping Stiles out of it too. They limped off down the street until they were a block away.

"Set me down," he told them. They moved to set him down against a parked car where he sat against one of the tires. Stiles looked up at the both of them. "You guys should go."

"What about you?" Erica asked.

"I'll be fine," he waved off.

Boyd's eyes widened. "Have you seen yourself?"

Stiles hand moved to his torso where it was still bleeding a bit. "It looks worse than it is. I'll start healing as soon as all the poison's out of my system."

Erica was shaking her head. "But…we can't just leave you like this."

"Yes, you can. You guys wanted to leave, right? You're never going to have a better chance."

Erica and Boyd looked over at each other. She then whispered something to him. Boyd looked a little skeptical and Stiles heard him ask her if that would even work and she responded that they had to at least try.

"Lift your shirt," Erica said to him.

"What? Why?"

"Just lift your damn shirt Stiles," Boyd barked at him.

Stiles grunted at him but slowly moved to lift his shirt to reveal the wound underneath. Erica and Boyd then started to shakily move their hands over to it. They were panting but closed their eyes and Stiles started to feel his breathing ease. He looked down and saw that the veins in both of their hands started to run black as they took some of Stiles' pain away together. After a few more seconds they pulled away and they all saw as Stiles' wound started to slowly close itself up. Stiles still felt some pain in his torso but he wasn't losing blood anymore. He then moved to stand on his own two feet.

"Thanks," he muttered to them.

Erica and Boyd were panting a bit but they actually felt more calmer than they had been all night.

Boyd nodded to him and he turned to Erica. "We should get going," he told her softly.

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Take care of yourselves," Stiles told them.

Erica eyed him for a moment before she leaned over and gave him a soft kiss on the lips. It was for barely a second before she pulled away. "Good luck," she said as she caught his eyes.

Stiles then watched them both start to run off for the direction of the woods. He stood there until he couldn't see them anymore and then started to limp off for the direction of the school.

In Stiles room, his father was pacing as he was on his phone.

"Yeah, I'm not finding any clues here. Listen…if he shows up at the hospital…okay thanks." He then hung up, oblivious to someone now standing at the doorway. "C'mon Stiles, where are you?" he asked.

"Right here."

Stiles then stepped into his room's light to reveal his still bruised face and bleeding lip. He had gone to the school and made sure to hit the shower first to clean away all the blood that was stuck to him and his clothes. Thankfully, his red jersey was able to hide some of it away from prying eyes. He then got his jeep from the parking lot and drove home.

"Stiles?!" His dad went over to him and started to look his face over.

"It's okay dad. Dad, I'm fine," Stiles tried to say as he could start to detect some hints of rage and sorrow leaking from his dad.

But his dad narrowed his eyes as he glared at his visible injury. "Who did it?" he said dangerously low.

"Just a couple of kids from the other team," Stiles breathed out nonchalantly like it was no big deal. "They were a little pissed at me. I was mouthing off."

But all that did little to dissipate his dad's rage. "Who was it?" his dad demanded.

"Dad, I don't know. I didn't see them really."

"I want descriptions," the sheriff spat.

"Dad, c'mon. It's not that bad. I'm going to be okay, trust me."

"I'm calling that school. I calling and I'm going to personally go down there. I'm going to personally beat those bastards-"

"Dad!" Stiles yelled out. "I said it was okay."

But Stiles found himself letting some tears loose. He was crying for what Gerard did to him, to Erica and Boyd and for what his dad had to go through. The sight of his tears made his dad just go and grab him into a tight hug. They started to silently cry into each other as they held each other into tight grips, neither one of them eager to let go anytime soon.

Scott and Isaac followed Derek and Peter back to the house when Scott got a text from the sheriff.

"Oh," he breathed in relief. "They found Stiles."

"How did he get away?" Derek asked him.

Scott shook his head. "I'll ask him later," he said putting his phone away. "What are we even doing here?" he asked when he saw Peter moving for the stairs.

"I'm getting something," Peter answered.

Derek glared at him. "There's nothing. I looked around this place already."

"Not here," he said as he started to shift the wood on one of the steps to reveal a hidden compartment with something inside.

"What is that? A book?" Derek asked.

Peter gave him a look. "No. It's a laptop. What century are you living in?" Derek rolled his eyes at him. "A few days after I got out of the coma I transferred everything we had. Fortunately, the Argents aren't the only ones that keep records."

Scott's phone started ringing and he saw that it was his mom. Probably to call him to tell him that the Stiles dad told her that he found Stiles. "Hey mom," he said picking up. "I can't really talk right now."

"Yeah? Well I'm so freaked out right now that I really can't talk either."

His mother's voice was cracking, almost like she was scared. "Mom?"

"Something is up and I think you are going to want to see this for yourself."

Melissa looked back at the sight of Jackson's body being encased in some kind of clear liquid. His clawed hands visible through them.

It wasn't too long after that when Scott and Isaac got to the hospital morgue where she was waiting for them and showed them Jackson.

"What's happening to him?" Scott asked as he took the sight of it in.

Melissa stuttered. "I-I thought you were going to tell me. Is it bad?" she asked letting her panic start to come out even more.

"Doesn't look good," Isaac said nonchalantly as he stared down at the body.

But then Jackson moved a bit and seemed to take in a breath which startled the hell out of the three of them as they backed off quickly.

"Uh mom," Scott said as he nervously eyed him. "Could you just zip him up please?"

She sighed. "Uh, okay. Okay," she breathed out as she went to zip the body bag up. "Okay. Okay, here we go," she muttered as she dragged the zipper up.

It then stopped just below Jackson's chin. It was stuck and she tried to push it back down when Jackson's head moved and his mouth opened to reveal two rows of razor sharp teeth. A loud and terrifying hiss came out as he settled back onto the table.

"Mom, zip," Scott said to her.

She moved to try again. "Okay. Okay."

"Zip. Zip mom, zip." Scott kept crying as his mother finally got the whole thing covered up again.

Gerard returned to the house and set off for the basement to check up on his three captives. However, what he saw instead was a basement space that had a busted generator and his son unconscious on the floor. He let a frustrated huff loose and moved back up the stairs without moving to check on Chris. He made his way to Allison's room and gently shook her awake.

"Wake up sweetheart," he said as she started to stir. Her eyes opened and locked onto him. "It's starting."

Allison eyes narrowed in both anticipation and eagerness.

Stiles was lying on his bed as he felt his body starting to slowly heal. The cut on his lip was closed but was still swollen a bit and the bruise on his face wasn't as inflamed as before. Stiles just laid there as he let himself dwell on everything else. His father told him about what happened with Jackson and why he was so worried. Stiles couldn't understand why Jackson would just do that to himself. Why Gerard would order him to do that to himself. Was it all part of some bargain that he and Scott made? Or was it something worse? His phone started to beep to tell him that he just received another message but Stiles didn't lift a muscle in response to it. He was just looking out, not really seeing anything, just as there was a knock on his door.

"Dad, I said I'm fine," he mumbled. But there was another knock and Stiles went to get up to answer it. "C'mon dad, I told you I'm-"

But when he opened the door, it wasn't his dad standing there, it was Lydia.

"Hi," she said softly to him.

"Hi," Stiles said back to her.

"Your father let me in."

Stiles' eyes widened. "He did. Oh, of course he did."

But Lydia's eyes narrowed at him. "What happened to your-"

"Oh," Stiles started to shrug. "This is…it's nothing. Don't worry about it. I'll be good as new in no time." He saw Lydia start to look down at the floor and Stiles swallowed. "You want to come in?" he offered her. She then stepped in and Stiles sensed that she wasn't feeling very well right now. "What's wrong?"

"Uh…they won't let me see him. I'm supposed to give him something," she started to cry. "He kept asking for it."

In her hands was Jackson's key that she had still been wearing. Lydia moved to sit on his bed while Stiles looked around for something for Lydia to clean her face with. He then sat next to her with a roll of toilet paper in his hand.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't have any tissues…"

Lydia just went and grabbed it. "That's fine,' she mumbled. She then took some off the roll and started to wipe at her face. "God, I'm such a mess." She stopped when Stiles phone let off another beep and she reached over and looked at it. "You have 17 missed messages from Scott," she said before she handed it over to him.

Stiles took it and then tossed it to the side. "I know."

Lydia eyed him curiously. "You ignoring him?"

He shook his head. "No…well, actually yeah. A bit." Now that he had escaped and with Jackson now dead, Stiles guessed that Scott either wanted to discuss Allison or something related to Allison and that was the last thing he wanted to do right now.

Lydia shook her head but stopped when she noticed something off to the side of Stiles' room. She walked over to see that there was a collection of store bags from Macy's along with items spread across his desk. She picked one of them up and showed it to him. "Why do you have women's jewelry?"

Stiles' eyes widened and he stood up quickly. "Oh, it's nothing. Just some stuff I bought, you know…for your birthday," he finished softly.

Lydia's expression became a bemused one. "For me?"

"Yeah," Stiles shrugged. "I kind of didn't know what to get you so I just bought a bunch of stuff. Like…a lot of stuff. You know, I was going to return whatever I didn't give you," he said lamely.

Lydia set the jewelry down and scoffed out before she noticed something behind her. "A flat screen tv?"

Now Stiles was embarrassed. "Yeah, that I'm definitely returning," he said as he tried to smile it away.

Lydia smiled back at him before she now got a message. Lydia took out her phone and her face fell at the message. She then walked over to him. "You're going to want to read this."

Stiles' face fell a bit before he looked down to read a message that Scott had sent her. It seemed that Scott knew that Stiles was ignoring him so he sent it to Lydia guessing that she would be with him or would tell him herself.

Stiles took the phone and threw it on his bed. "How much do you know about this stuff?" he asked her with a hard look coming over him.

Lydia shook her head slowly. "Pieces," she said softly. "Half of it's like a dream."

"Well guess what, the other half is like a freaking nightmare," he said starting to hound on her.

"I don't care," she said looking back at him. "I could help him."

Stiles rolled his eyes. "See? That's the problem. You don't care about getting hurt. But do you know how I'll feel? I'll be devastated." He then narrowed his eyes at her. "And if you die then I'll literally go out of my freaking mind and start bouncing off the walls. You don't get that death doesn't happen to you Lydia, it happens to everyone around you, okay? It's all the people left standing in your funeral trying to figure out how they'll live the rest of their lives without you in it. Lydia, look at my face!" he said stomping at her with a glare and making her step back. "Do you think this was done to hurt me?! No, this was done to hurt the people that I care about, all because I was just trying to help. I didn't care about what happened to me and I nearly sent my dad off the deep end. Don't you start being that way too!" Lydia eyes were wide in surprise and Stiles saw that his hand pointing his face out was sporting claws and he could feel his eyes burning so he knew that he was shining the gold glow from them. Stiles immediately backed away and tried to calm himself. "I'm…I'm sorry."

Lydia was freaked but she held her ground. "It's fine." She then started to narrow her eyes at him. "You want to stay here and feel sorry for yourself, fine. I'll find a way to help him myself," she said as she stomped off.

"Lydia, Lydia wait!" he tried calling after her but she kept on going. Stiles kicked some dirt from the carpet and felt the urge to slam his head against the wall.

Chris was in the kitchen, pulling out a first-aid kit and bandaging his arm up after cleaning it. There was a small bruise forming at the side of his head but he cared little for it. Right now, he had to find Gerard and get to the bottom of what was happening. He moved up the stairs and made his way to his room but saw that it was empty. He still wasn't back yet…or maybe he had been. Chris immediately ran for Allison's room and saw that she was no longer there.

Derek and Peter were still in the house as Peter started to look at the records for anything on the Kanima. Derek was on the phone listening to Scott's update on Jackson from the morgue.

"They say that it's some kind of liquid casing coming out of his claws," Derek said relaying Scott's message.

"That sounds sufficiently terrifying," Peter mumbled, not taking his eyes off the computer screen.

Derek then hung the phone up. "They also say that he's starting to move."

"Okay," said Peter tensing up. "I think I found something. It looks like everything that we've seen from Jackson has been the Kanima's beta shape."

"Meaning what? That it could turn into something bigger?"

Peter found the section he was looking for and he backed away. "Bigger and badder."

Derek's caught his breath at the image that Peter had gone to. "He's turning into that? That has wings!"

"I can see that," Peter said sarcastically but frightfully.

Derek then dialed for Scott immediately. "Scott, you have to bring him to us."

"Uh, I'm not sure we have time for that."

Scott, Isaac and his mom were against the wall as they saw the body bag started to move and thrash around.

Peter found something else. "Hmm, look someone actually made an animation of it. Maybe it's less frightening if we-" He clicked it and both he and Derek jumped back when they saw it move and heard the screech that followed. Peter then went and closed it. "Nope, not at all. We should probably meet em halfway."

Derek agreed completely. "Scott," he said into his phone. "Get him out of there now. Go now."

Derek started to rush out for the front door but Peter moved to intercept him.

"Derek," he said sternly. "We need Lydia."

"There's no time!" he barked at him but Peter held his hand up at him.

"That's our problem. We're rushing. We're moving too fast and everyone knows that on a moving target, it's harder to hit. And here we are, racing into Gerard's crosshairs. Calm down and think about your next move."

"I already know my next move." Derek let a small breathless as his face hardened. "If I get the chance to kill Jackson then I'm taking it."

As Derek left, Peter rolled his eyes. "It never hurts to have a back-up." He then pulled out his phone and prepared to send out a text.

Scott and Isaac were now in the parking lot, trying to sneak out the body bag without being seen by any of the doctors or security guards that were around. They carefully moved around the walls and pushes of the lot and were soon tiptoeing through the cars but Scott was so nerve-wracked that he dropped the bag.

"Sorry," Scott said as he quickly went to try and pick it up again.

But a mini-van started to pull into the parking lot and stopped right at them shining its headlights on them. The driver's door opened and Allison's father Chris stepped out. Isaac brought out his claws but Scott held a hand out to make him stay settled.

"You're alone," said Scott.

Chris nodded. "More than you know."

Scott's eyes narrowed. He smelled fresh blood. It was coming from him and seemed to be focused on his arm. "What happened to you?"

Chris moved to roll back the sleeve of his jacket to reveal some of the bandage there. "Compliments from your friend Stiles."

Scott's eyes widened. "Stiles?"

Chris rolled his sleeve back down. "Under the circumstances, he actually let me off easy."

"What circumstances?" Scott tensed up. "What did you do to him?"

Chris eyes dropped a bit as he reflected on the sight of the beaten teenager that had been left by his father to bleed in his basement. "Nothing that he deserved it seems. But don't worry. He and the others got away."

Scott didn't like the sound of that. He was starting to understand why Stiles wasn't answering any of his messages better now.

Isaac's face darkened a bit. "Others? Erica and Boyd?" He let a growl loose from his throat. "What did you do to them?"

"They're fine now. Stiles saw to that," Chris said simply not wanting to get into details with the boys.

But that did little to calm Isaac. "Now? They're fine now? So then they weren't fine before? I should tear you apart. Jackson's gone so the morgue has a free spot you could take!"

"Isaac, stop!" Scott yelled back at him.

He then hounded on Scott. "Didn't you hear about what they did? What he did? To Erica? Boyd? Stiles? That doesn't mean anything to you?!"

"Of course it does!" Scott roared back at him. Yes, it mattered to Scott. It was his fault that Stiles ended up getting caught and put through that in the first place. "It's tearing me apart. But we can't worry about that right now." He then gave the body bag another look as it gave another small twitch from what was inside. Scott then turned to face Chris again with a hard look. "I know that you didn't come all this way to tell us all this. What do you really want?" he asked the hunter a little shortly.

Chris let a hard breath loose. "We don't have a lot in common Scott, but at the moment we have a common enemy."

Scott's hand gestured to the bag. "That's why we're trying to get him out of here."

"I didn't mean Jackson." Scott's eyes narrowed a bit. "Gerard has twisted his way into Allison's head in the same way he did with Kate. I'm losing her. And I know that you're losing her too."

Scott nodded. "I know. So can you trust me to handle this?" Chris stared at him for a moment before he nodded. "Then can you let us go?"

"No," he said. He was silent for a second before he looked behind him. "My car's faster."

Scott and Isaac moved to put Isaac in the back of the van before the three of them rode off to meet up with Derek and Peter at the warehouse district like they planned. They just hoped that whatever they found could help stop both Jackson and Gerard.