Chapter 26: Pain of the Penultimate

The ATM's screen kept blinking on and off, so Zach moved to pound on it a few times to try and make it work. He just wanted to get out of here and didn't want to stay here any longer than he had to. Even less when he began to feel some raindrops starting to fall.

"Come on," he said as he gave the screen two more hurried whacks.

The machine's screen blinked a few more times before the screen went fully green. There was then a clicking sound echoing out from the machine's speaker. To Zach it sounded like electrical clacking.

"Zach," a distorted voice sounded out from the machine.

Zach narrowed his eyes before his name appeared on the screen, repeating itself constantly, without even spacing and kept on going for several lines.

ZachZachZachZachZachZachZachZachZach

The young chimera was getting freaked out by it and started to back away as the machine kept going. He turned around to leave but froze as he saw one of the so called Dread Doctors that held him captive before, the Surgeon, standing a few yards away, slowly walking over to him with his cane dragging a bit as he walked. The Dread Doctor looked even more scarier than he did the last time he saw him.

"Zach," he muttered as he moved ever closer.

"Oh man," Zach muttered before he took off for his car.

But Zach stopped in his tracks as he saw both the Geneticist and the Pathologist standing on opposite sides of his car, facing him.

"Your condition is stable," the Surgeon muttered, making Zach turn to frightfully look back, seeing that he was now just a few feet away. "Yet, no progress."

"Failure?" muttered both the Geneticist and Pathologist.

"Failure," the Surgeon confirmed with a nod. The Dread Doctors then moved to unsheathe the blade at the end of his cane and then hurled it for the boy.

Zach screamed as moved his arms to try and shield himself. Suddenly, his eyes flashed bright yellow as two feathered wings burst out from his back, cutting through his jacket. His right wing came and stopped the cane in mid-air, before his left wing moved and batted it away as soon as it hit the pavement, making it harmlessly roll off. Zach straightened himself as his face widened at the sight of the wings. His glowing eyes widened at the sight of them.

The Geneticist then began to move and grab him. Zach reacted and turned around to try and hit him with his right wing, but the Geneticist caught it with both of his hands. He became frightened and tried to pull away but the Geneticist's grip was iron tight. In a panic he tried to throw a quick left hook for the masked head but the Geneticist moved to catch it. The Geneticist turned his gaze over to the caught hand and saw the claws that were now visible at the end of the fingers. But he had to loosen his grip on the wing and Zach pushed it into the doctor and made him let his hand go. The sudden release made Zach and the Geneticist stumble back but while Zach fell on his back, the doctor stayed firm and tall, looking down at him in intimidation.

Zach started to crawl back, seeing all three of the doctors now encircling him. He turned himself around and started to run, on all fours. He ran a few yards before he leapt into the air and then started flapping his wings, lifting himself higher and higher. The Dread Doctors moved to stand side by side, gazing up at his retreating figure.

"Pursue?" the Geneticist asked, his eyes not leaving the boy's distancing form.

The Surgeon regarded the boy for another second before he turned away. "Unnecessary," he said as he walked off.

They didn't need to put forth more effort to eliminate him. Zach may have been lucky enough to evade them this time but he would find that it is futile. They can catch him better after he has exhausted himself.

"What of the new catalyst?" asked the Pathologist.

That made the Surgeon stop, which made the others stop. The new candidate for their catalyst. The one called Stiles. Trying to get a sample directly from him hadn't been successful. Stiles had managed to surprise and escape from all three of them. A trait that Zach apparently inherited through the incorporation of the blood sample they procured at the school. While using it had given Zach stability, he hadn't become their success. But…Stiles was still in early transition. With the proper, prodding, they might be able upgrade him and thus better his chances to produce them results soon enough.

"Not procure, capture," said the Surgeon.

Last time they merely tried to procure a sample of his blood. That left him an opportunity to escape them. This time, they would incapacitate him upon arrival.

"Two more," the Geneticist reminded him.

He was right. There were still two more subjects left. Though, there might be a chance they could yield success, it was small.

"Appropriate."

With that, the Surgeon led them off again. The three vanishing into their personal frequency.

Zach was panting as he tried to get as far away from those three Dread Doctors as he could. After about ten minutes or so, he stopped moving and just hovered up in the high altitude over the town. It seemed safe enough now but his heart was still racing after coming so close to being killed. Should he have taken Lydia and the deputy's offer to go with them earlier that day? As he hovered the rain started to fall harder and the wind was picking up, blowing the drops straight into his face. It felt like he pelted by pebbles and his movement in the air was starting to falter. It was getting harder to stay in the air like this and he was beginning to feel light-headed. There was a hard burning forming on his back and a numbness coming over his…wings (that was still strange to think) as well. He then remembered that the last time he felt this way, he had fallen out of the sky and crashed onto a car. He had to get back down to the ground.

He started looking around and then spotted a highway overpass that didn't seem too far. As he began to touch down towards it, the burning in his back grew hotter and the numbness in his wings spreading. Zach let out a cry of panic when he started to wobble about in the air and his downward speed pick up a bit. He didn't think he would make it to the ground and darted over to a platform on one of the stone supports. He tried to land on his feet but ended up crashing and landing flat onto his belly. Laying there in a heap, he was breathing hard and deeply. Zach could dimly make out the street about twenty feet beneath him as he let his tiredness start to overcome him and pass out. His wings lay limp, before they started to shift back into his body, with some feathers molting away as they disappeared into his back. The tears in the back of his jacket being the only sign that they had been there, save for the handful of feathers that were now being carried off by the hard winds.

They flew off and landed right on top of the windshield of a particular blue jeep that was driving by.

"Oh man," Stiles muttered.

Seeing that three somewhat large feathers had fallen on his windshield and seemed to be stuck there by the rain. He then turned the wiper speed up even higher until they were swept out of his sight. He guessed some bird must've gotten caught in the storm. He considered it a small mercy that it was just feathers and not droppings. But he quickly shook himself out of it. He was back in the town limits and he had to find his friends. He quickly sent a text off to Liam first, seeing as how he seemed to be trying to reach him for the longest time. It wasn't long after that his phone started ringing.


Noah Stilinski couldn't believe it when he got a call from the station about the body snatcher being caught. Apparently, they had gone and turned themself in. At first, he thought it had to be a joke, as whoever it was had the strength to subdue a werewolf like his son. But then he learned of who it was that had come forward. After that, he quickly rushed over to the station and was heading straight for the holding cells but stopped short when he found Lydia sitting outside his office by the bench. Just from the look that seemed to be on her face, he knew that it had to be true.

"What the hell is he thinking?" he asked

Lydia kept staring ahead when she answered, "He's thinking that he's protecting us."

He shook his head. "From what?"

She finally turned to look at him. "Himself."

His eyes turned away from the girl and looked over in the direction of the cells. "So, it is him?"

"It's not his fault. He doesn't know what he's doing."

"Clearly," he huffed.

Noah headed on in and quickly spotted Parrish sitting off against the wall of the closest cell, calmly staring at his hands.

'What the hell is going on?' he thought with a frustrated puff of air from his nose, before pulling out his keycard and heading for the cell's lock.

"No!" Parrish shouted, stopping him.

"Parrish, we can't keep you in here."

"You have to," he said, moving over to the bars. "Sheriff, I was the one who attacked your son." Parrish moved to stare at him directly in the eye. "Twice. All because he was protecting two of the bodies. Now I hear there's another one."

The Sheriff let himself deflate. "Two actually."

Parrish nodded. "Well, I'm the one taking them. I know that now. And your son and his friends found that out too. Lydia told me that he warned her to stay away from me, and he was right to do that." His tone then dropped a bit. "Just like you were right to keep me stuck at a desk for six months."

Noah blinked at that last part. "Parrish," he tried.

But he got cut off. "I'm dangerous. Sheriff, you can't let me out. Okay, you can't."

After that, he just moved off to head back to sit against the wall of the cell and go back to his silent solitude. Noah took a moment to look down at the keycard still in his hand, so many thoughts starting racing around in his head.


A heavy rain was starting to fall as Theo was driving for the animal clinic with Liam and Hayden together in his backseat, again. However, this time there was no feeling of sweet relief. Only rising anxiety. Hayden was starting to look weak and she was leaning into Liam as he lightly cradled her in his arms. Even in the dark, Liam could see that she was shining with all the sweating she was now doing.

Liam took firm hold of Hayden's hand and started to focus. He began trying as hard as he could to try and relieve Hayden of her pain, just like he had done for her before, but seemed to be happening.

"Why isn't it working?" he asked, bewildered.

"What's not working?" asked Theo, giving him a glance from the rearview mirror.

"I'm trying to pull her pain from her. But, I'm not getting anything."

Hayden let out an exasperated moan. "I, I'm not in pain. I just feel…sleepy."

"Whoa, Liam, keep her awake," Theo said back at him. "Right now, it might be a bad idea for her to fall asleep."

Liam was too freaked out to try and argue. "Hayden," he said, pulling her to be more upright. "You gotta stay awake."

But Hayden let her head sway about drowsily as Liam shook her in an effort to keep her up.

"I'm too tired," she lowly muttered.

"Yeah, I know but you can't fall asleep." Liam could see that Hayden was struggling to keep her eyes open. "There has to be something. How do we help her?"

Theo quickly detected the fear and desperation leaking out from Liam. He was ready to grab any solution he could right now. This was perfect.

"Uh, I don't know," he said, shaking his head. "When its wolfsbane poisoning, you burn it out. But, I don't know anything about mercury. Especially a kind that's probably been altered by them."

"Is she going to heal?" he quickly threw in. "I mean, Scott and Stiles said she's part werewolf, part jaguar. The werewolf part lets her heal like us, right?"

"I'm not sure. Remember Liam, she isn't really like us. None of the chimeras are. They're more like, like cheap knockoffs." Theo tasted something bitter forming at the side of his mouth as he said that but pushed it down. "She might not be as strong as we are."

"Or heal like we do."

"Yeah, I mean, she isn't a real werewolf." He made sure to really emphasize on the real part, hoping for a certain thought to come to him.

And it did.

"But, what if she was? We can turn her into one." Liam quickly asked.

"It's a nice idea, except, you and I can't do that. Neither can Stiles or Malia."

"But Scott can."

Liam remembered that reason he was even a werewolf was because Scott had made him into one. By biting him. He was an Alpha and only an Alpha's bite could turn someone into a werewolf.

"Yeah…he can."

As Liam turned his focus back to trying to keep Hayden awake, Theo let himself look over at them by the rearview mirror. Liam was falling into place for what he had planned. But, if it was going to work, then one more thing needed to happen. But he was brought out of his thoughts by a loud beep behind him.

Liam quickly pulled out his phone and let himself sigh in relief. "Yes, finally."

"What is it?" Theo quickly asked.

"It's Stiles. He just sent me a text. I've been trying to get to him all day but I couldn't find him anywhere."

Theo had started wondering where he had gone off to. "Yeah, Stiles left school in the middle of the morning," he explained. "Did he tell you where he was going?"

"No. But it sounded like he might have a plan that can stop the Dread Doctors. Maybe he was working on that."

"Well, then you should tell him to come meet us at the animal clinic. Who knows, maybe whatever it is, could with Hayden too."

Liam nodded. "Yeah, you're right."

As Liam went right ahead to call him, he didn't see Theo smirking at him from the mirror.

'Don't let me down Scott,' Theo thought to himself.

From this point on, everything that followed would be riding on him.


Derek's minivan pulled up into the driveway before Maggie moved to let herself out of the passenger seat.

"Thanks again for your help tonight," she said to him as he moved to get out of the car and walk with her to the front door. "That was one my biggest clients."

He smiled at her. "It was no problem. Helping you with a delivery was the least I could-"

Derek stopped mid-sentence and looked back over at the house. Maggie tensed when she saw Derek's eyes glow blue as they scanned around.

"What's wrong?" she asked him.

"Someone's here. Another wolf. Stay here."

Derek darted off inside, against Maggie's protest. The inside of the house was quiet, and dark. The windows where the light from the almost full moon providing the only limited sources of light. Yet, Derek could feel that there was someone there. Someone who tried to jump at him from around the corner on his left. But Derek was ready and caught and tried to flip him off to the side but the attacker had managed to land on his feet and came back at Derek with a quick punch to the face. Derek stumbled back two steps before he let out a spitting growl and flashed his blue eyes out at him. The other werewolf's yellow eyes shone through the darkness and he answered with his own growl through his clenched fanged teeth. Derek moved to claw at him with a right hook but the other werewolf dodged it and ducked to avoid Derek's attempt to swing it back at him. He then struck and clawed Derek at his torso before he followed with another punch to the face. This wolf was strong.

Derek then charged and gored into him, sending them to the floor with Derek on top of him. He grabbed at his neck, his claws stabbing into his throat.

"Who are you?!" Derek roared into his face.

But his attacker just continued to struggle and Derek tried to hang on and keep him pinned down.

"Derek!" he heard behind him, making them both stop and turn to look over at Maggie as she turned on the light. "Get off him."

"What? You know this guy?"

"That's Charlie."

"Charlie?"

Derek looked down at the guy he had his clawed hand gripping his throat. So this was Charlie Harris. Maggie had told Derek about him. Oscar had hoped to strengthen himself and his pack with stronger than average betas so he wanted people with actual combat experience. Charlie was the first of the betas that Oscar had made with his new screening method. Charlie had been in the army so he had received real combat training making him a prime pick for the Alpha.

Five minutes later Maggie was dabbing a paper towel with rubbing alcohol before moving to dab it across the incisions on Charlie's neck. He hissed as it touched the cuts.

"Relax," she muttered as she resumed her work.

"Why bother. Can't I heal?" he complained.

"Yes, but we still want to avoid any infections."

Charlie moved his gaze up over to Derek who was sitting off by the counter, looking at him with narrowed eyes. "You're actually pretty tough."

"Yeah, well I have to say, for a beta only about 7 months old, so are you." He tried not to flinch from the pain in his side where Charlie had clawed him. "Why did you sneak into Maggie's house?" he asked him.

"I have news for her."

She paused in her treatment of him. "What?" She then saw Charlie looking over at Derek. "It's okay. You can say it in front of him."

He let a small sigh loose. "Okay, well this afternoon I had some business in the next town over I saw Oscar there. He didn't see me," he quickly added, sensing the concern flare up in Maggie. "But I did see him, it looked he was intimidating some high school boy there."

"About what?"

"I don't know," he said, shaking his head. "There was a bit of noise blocking me out. But, I did managed to get this."

He pulled out his phone and showed them a small video recording of a teenage boy standing out across a street, staring off into the distance. He was angled away from them getting a clear view of his face before he turned around to walk in the opposite direction, and the face came into view clearly.

"Oh no," Maggie breathed.

"What, you know this kid?" asked Charlie.

"Yes," Derek heatedly sighed, glaring at the screen. "Yes I do."

It was Ruben.


When Scott left Liam and Hayden with Theo, he had hopped on his bike and had rode off. He hadn't really headed anywhere. He just needed time to just…clear his mind. A part of him hoped that something would probably come to him, some solution to help them out of this mess.

Nothing did.

As it began to rain, he moved to get himself back to the clinic where he spotted Theo's truck already parked up in front of it. The three of them were already inside. He got off his bike, but he didn't go in. He just started pacing around a bit, letting himself get soaked in the strengthening downpour. What was he supposed to say?

But his thoughts were halted when the headlights of Stiles' jeep started illuminating the place. He then moved over to his backpack, where he pulled out the wrench but kept it hidden from sight.

Inside the clinic, Liam moved Hayden to rest at a corner of the back room, wiping the sweat off her brow with a damp paper towel while Theo stood off to the side, gazing out towards the front door.

"Where is Scott?" Liam asked before looking over at Theo. "Shouldn't he have been here by now? What's he doing?"

Theo had his back to Liam so he couldn't see that there was a small smirk on his face. Liam had been so preoccupied with Hayden that he hadn't heard Scott's bike pull in. The Alpha had been outside for a while now.

"I'm sure he's on his way," he mumbled over to him.

"Well, how much longer is he going to be?"

But, at the next second, they spotted a great flood of light pour in through the windows facing the parking lot.

Theo finally turned away to look over at the young beta. "That's got to be Stiles. He made it."

Liam breathed some relief and let himself start to calm a bit as he resumed tending to Hayden. Theo though moved off into the reception area. He wanted to get closer to better hear what was to go down.

As Stiles pulled in, he quickly spotted Scott out by his bike. He guessed that he must've just arrived a moment before he did. Stiles put his jeep in park but didn't stop the engine. He was worried that he might not get it to start again.

"Sorry," he said as he threw himself out and closed the door after him. "I had trouble starting the Jeep again. I'm scared to turn it off right now. It's barely hanging on." Stiles' face fell as he noticed the look Scott had. It was raining too hard to get an accurate reading on his chemo signature but he guessed that Scott was either upset, disappointed or both. Probably about what happened with him that morning. "Scott? Look, I'm sorry about leaving earlier but I got a call from Satomi and you won't believe what I've found out."

Scott just stared off as he kept talking. Right now, Stiles looked so much like…Stiles. And yet…he had killed someone. Savagely attack and beat on his body, after he was already dead. And he had been keeping it a secret from him, and threatened Theo to keep it a secret. Scott just couldn't understand how Stiles was able to carry on like it was all okay.

Stiles, oblivious to his thoughts, continued. "I tried calling after but I couldn't get in touch with Malia or Lydia, but, thankfully, Liam called. Actually I'm going to need to talk to him."

Seeing him move spurred Scott into action. "Stiles, wait," he said, making him stop.

Scott then went and took out the wrench, letting it be out in plain view.

Stiles stilled at the sight of it. He hadn't seen…that night, with Donovan. The last time he saw it was when he had stabbed it into Donovan when he been using his jawed palm to eat into the back of his shoulder. Just the memory sent a burning sting from his upper back. How had Scott gotten it?

"Where did you get that?" he asked.

Scott wouldn't say. He didn't want Theo to get any backlash from Stiles. Besides, this had nothing to do with him. "That doesn't matter. Why didn't you tell me?" he asked after Stiles reached over to take it.

Stiles then realized that Scott now knew what had happened, with Donovan. There was no denying it, and he wasn't planning on it. "I was going to," he started to explain.

Scott shook his head. Somehow, he doubted Stiles was actually planning on telling him at all. This wasn't exactly the first time Stiles had been keeping things from him or went behind his back. "Why didn't you say anything after it happened?"

"I couldn't," he mumbled, the guilt welling up inside of him again.

"You killed him? You killed Donovan?"

Stiles felt his throat tighten. Unlike with Satomi, there was accusation and judgement in his voice. "He wanted to kill my dad. Kill me," he said, defending himself. "What? Was I just supposed to go and let him?"

Stiles really did. He just admitted it. All of it. And he didn't seem sorry for what he did. He was trying to justify it. Scott couldn't believe it.

He shook his head. "No, but you weren't supposed to do this. None of us are."

Suddenly, the guilt that Stiles had was making way for anger. Scott hadn't been there. Hadn't been the one that Donovan attacked or had threatened with the life of his father. It was so easy for him to stand there, going all high and mighty on him.

"What did you expect me to do?" he asked, gesturing his arms out. "You think I had a choice?" Stiles then noticed Scott looking down at the wrench. It still had dried patches of blood on it. Donovan's blood. That he had put on it, to live. "I didn't have a choice Scott."

"There's always a choice," Scott cut in, his eyes still on the wrench. The blood on it stood out. Blood from Stiles' rage and bloodlust against Donovan. A victim, like Corey and Hayden. "Always."

Stiles scoffed. "Yeah, there's always a choice. Maybe always for you Scott. I know you wouldn't have done it. You probably would've just figured something out, right?" he barked with a sharp nod of his head. "Another way?"

Now Scott was getting angry himself. It looked like Stiles was mocking him. "I would try to find one."

"Yeah, because you're Scott McCall!" he exploded, making Scott be taken aback. "The True Alpha. Yeah, well guess what. Not all of us can be true alphas. Not all of us can have another way, okay. Some of us just can't go and look for one. Some of us need to get our hands bloody sometimes. Some of us have to make mistakes. We can't all, be perfect, like you!" He closed that out with his blue eyes blaring out.

Stiles was pissed. He wouldn't have been able to hold any of that back, even if he had wanted to. When Scott quickly ducked his gaze, to not directly at him, it only further pissed Stiles off.

"So, you had to kill him?" he said, avoiding his direct gaze.

Stiles kept his blue eyes on him. "Scott, he wanted to kill my dad."

"But, the way that it happened," he said, casting another look at the wrench. "There comes a point where its not self-defense anymore."

"What are you even talking about?" Stiles cut in, moving closer to him. "I didn't have a choice Scott!" It wasn't like he wanted to have that pipe to skewer Donovan. He didn't even plan that when he hit the chimera into the scaffolding. "You don't even believe me, do you?" he realized.

Scott swallowed and let a tense breath out. "I want to," he tried to say calmly.

"Okay, then say you believe me." But Scott just stood there. Not saying a thing. Or even looking at him. Stiles felt his rage flaring up again and stepped forward again. "Scott, look at me" he said to him stiffly. Scott's gaze wandered up a bit but he still couldn't seem to bring himself to look him directly in the eye. "Look at me Scott," he barked out, moving another step closer.

Scott, instead moved back a step. For him, in that moment, he felt like Stiles just threatened him. Was coming at him, with that wrench handy, even if he didn't need it. It felt like he was being leered at, by a crazy person. By a monster.

"No less a monster than your best friend," he recalled the memory of Peter taunt him in his head. His blue eyes shining through the darkness. "After all, he has these eyes too, doesn't he? And he's the one you left to be the Alpha after you."

With his blue eyes, glaring at him, looking ready to hurt him, Stiles looked just like Peter. And, if he let him go through with his plan…he could become him. Just like him, in every way. No, Scott couldn't have it. This had to stop.

He then went and shoved at Stiles, pushing him down to the ground, making his blue eyes flicker out in surprise. "We can't kill people we're trying to save, that's what I believe. Do you?!" he spat back, with his own red eyes coming out.

Stiles moved to get back to his feet. "Scott-" he tried.

"No, I can't, I can't do this anymore." Scott shook his head.

That made Stiles face fall. "Scott, what are you saying?" he asked fearfully.

Scott swallowed and immediately felt how dry his throat was and how fast his heart was racing. "I'm saying…you have to stay away. Don't worry about Malia or Lydia. Keep away from Liam. And Theo. You should probably go and talk to your dad. But, I can't have you here, around everyone. Around me. I just can't. You need to stay away. You have to stay away. For good."

Stiles cringed, as suddenly it seemed like something just twisted and ripped at his insides.

Liam was still cradling Hayden in his arms, rocking her a bit to try and keep her distracted and awake. Out of nowhere, his eyes flickered their golden yellow glow as he felt a sudden weight pressure drop on his heart. An aching pain seemed to spread from his chest to all over.

Lydia was sitting at the bench in the Sheriff's station, it mostly empty by now. Her eyes were feeling heavy and her head started lagging a bit. She had gone through quite the trying day today and it was starting to catch up. As her eyes closed, she suddenly sat straight up, her eyes wide open. She felt wide awake now. Something had happened, not death related, but perhaps just as bad.

Kira was sitting outside in the middle of the desert, looking up at the night sky. It was so beautiful and she could easily forget the way things currently were. She just hoped that Scott and the others were doing okay. Her wishful thinking vanished as she felt a sudden pit in her stomach that spread to her heart.

Back in the clinic parking lot, Stiles was blinking radically as he felt like his insides had hollowed out while Scott was still staring at him, unblinking, with his Alpha red eyes.

"Leave Stiles, please," he said, with restrained calm.

"Scott," Stiles said, pleading.

"Just go!" Scott shouted at him.

The force of that made Stiles take a step back. The two of them just stared at one another, the sound of the hard rain falling around them being the only sound or movement between them. Stiles' pained face finally broke away as he turned to head back to his jeep. When he did, Scott's eyes dimmed back to their normal shade of brown. He stood there, watching Stiles drive off before he turned to head on back inside.

Theo was still standing out of sight in the reception area. He could feel something in him loosening. The tie that Stiles had to the pack, it was gone. He let himself smile before he moved back for the backroom. He could sense Scott was coming.


Malia was staring hard at all the photos and prints she had from Stiles' crime board relating to her mother. She'd taken to spending most of her available time looking them over again and again. Glaring from them to the picture of her 8 year old self with her mother and sister. Her adopted mother and sister. Her gaze left them when there was a knock at her door.

"Malia?" she heard from behind the door. "Can I come in?"

Malia quickly moved to put it all away before she moved to sit at the foot of her bed and cleared her throat. "Okay," she called back.

The door then opened and Henry Tate stuck his head in. "Are you okay?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay."

But Henry sighed. "Malia, I know what happened at the school. With you and that girl." That made Malia tense a bit. "The Sheriff called me," he further explained.

"Oh," she muttered.

"Are you okay?" he asked again, more meaningful than before.

She sat there, looking down at her hands resting on her knees. "No," she finally said.

She felt her dad come in and move to sit right by her and Malia moved to lean into him. Henry's arm moved around his daughter and took hold of her shoulder as they just silently sat there. As she let herself rest there, the memory of both Beth getting killed in front of her began replaying in her mind. It happened again, just like with Tracy.

But, what she didn't want to say or think about, was the fact that she didn't feel as sorry as she felt she should be. After all, just like with Tracy, Beth had attacked and could've killed her. She was scared of what Scott would say if he were to know. Though, she knew that Stiles would understand. After all, she had a strong hunch that he knew exactly what she was feeling, even if he thought no one knew. But…she did. As she thought of him, her mind began to wander off towards Theo. How she felt when she was in his hold today. And when she had held him the other night after he saved Liam and Hayden. Not to mention some of the dreams she'd been having…about him. Just the memories brought her relief, contention, and finally shame.

Suddenly Malia hissed and broke away from her dad's hold.

Henry grew concerned when he saw Malia clenching at her chest as if she was in pain. "Malia? Sweetheart, what is it? What's wrong? Are you alright?" he asked in quick succession and concern.

"I…I don't know," she answered, breathing a little hard. Her blue glowing eyes shining through. "Something, something's wrong."

What had just happened? It felt like a piece of her heart had just been suddenly…cut away.


When Scott stepped back into the animal clinic, he moved to the side and began to lean back into the wall by the door. Leaning there, silently, he didn't move until he heard the sound of the jeep leaving the lot. He let himself let loose a breathe he didn't even know he was holding onto. It was deep and hot. Scott then moved to wipe the water and sweat that was dripping down his face from his hair. He then saw that he was completely soaked, dripping a heavy amount of water and had already left a good size puddle on the floor. He shook himself out of it and headed off for the backroom to regroup with the others.

When he stepped inside, he quickly found that Liam was perched on the floor, cradling her in his arms.

"Scott!" he said, half in desperation and surprise. For a moment, he allowed himself to put this gaping hole feeling in his heart off to the side and focus back on Hayden. She didn't even have enough strength to keep her eyes open anymore. "Hayden, I think she's dying."

"It's got to be some kind of mercury poisoning," said Theo from his place off to the side. He guessed that the Surgeon decided to make Hayden's death a slow one as both to ensure his failure was disposed of and to satisfy Theo's need for more time. Crude, but it was working for his benefit just fine.

Liam's panic grew. "Scott," he gasped. "Remember what you promised me. You said you'd do everything you could to save her. If she's a real werewolf, we can save her." He looked away from Hayden to see that Scott was just standing there, staring. "You've got to give her the bite!"

Scott then looked straight at him and then uttered, "No."

Liam blinked. That wasn't what he had been expecting. Or wanted. He laid Hayden down softly and got to his feet. "What do you mean no?" he said, walking over and stopping just a foot short of him.

Scott guessed that Liam was hoping that the bite would be able to cure Hayden of the poison that the Dread Doctors used. He knew that Liam cared a lot about her and to turn her into a werewolf too would solve everything. But Scott couldn't help but think about what happened with Derek and his first girlfriend Paige. The bite had killed her and she died in Derek's arms. He didn't want that to happen to Liam too. He had to talk him out of this.

"Liam, look at her. She's too weak, it'll kill her. We don't even know what the mercury's doing to her. We don't even know if it is actually mercury. This can't be the only way to save her life."

"It saved mine," he tried to remind him.

"You know that was different. You were hanging off of a ledge."

"You bit me and I healed completely the next day."

"But there was still a chance it could've killed you."

"But it didn't," he hissed back. "And I remember Stiles saying that that the chances of surviving the bite are good and even better with teenagers. And you're a True Alpha so your bite could be even safer." Just then remembered that Stiles had gotten to the clinic. He looked over Scott's shoulder, wondering why he wasn't there. Surely he could help in getting Scott to do this.

At the mention of Stiles, Scott found himself glaring. "Well forget what Stiles told you. Okay, with the bite there's always a risk."

Liam was starting to get angry. To him it sounded like Scott was just trying to make excuses. "You promised me," he savagely reminded him. "You said you would do everything you could."

"Which is why I'm not going to do something I think is going to kill her. Okay? There has to…has to be-"

Scott then started to find himself feeling short of breath and his lungs started to close up on him. He reached around his pocket for his inhaler but found that it was all broken. It must've happened during their fight with the Dread Doctors back at Sinema.

"Scott." Theo went and held out another inhaler and tossed it over to him.

He quickly went and puffed the medicinal air into his lungs, feeling the swelling go down. "Thanks," he coughed out to Theo.

Theo simply nodded back to him.

Though, Liam let out a sniffle from his nose and moved to rub at his nostrils as he felt some kind of itching feeling come over them. As he rubbed his forefinger harshly over them, he couldn't help but think this feeling was familiar, like at the back of his mind.

Theo noticed the young beta's reaction immediately. "Liam?" he asked, concerned and a little nervous. "You okay?"

Liam looked over at his direction but his vision diverted over to where Hayden was still breathing hard and sweating heavily. He forgot about the feeling from before and turned to glare back at Scott. "Scott, she doesn't have much time."

Scott felt his breathing settle and shook his head again. "Liam, no. For all we know, whatever the Dread Doctors did to her, the bite might not even work."

"Well you have to at least try!" he shouted.

"No, there has to be another way."

"Guys!" Theo called out, breaking up their argument. He was now cradling Hayden in his arms, where she was now coughing and fidgeting around. "I'm not sure about the statistics for surviving a werewolf bite, but it looks like she's definitely not going to survive this. We have to do something."


Ruben got back to his house and moved to sit down at the corner of his bed. He moved to pull out his phone but only stared at it. It was clear what he had to do…but, a part of him was nervous. In spite of everything, he actually liked Cora and he knew that this could hurt her. Yet, he knew that if he didn't, then it would certainly do more than hurt him. The sight of Oscar running his claw across his neck came back to him, and he knew that the next time he did that would be with own neck. That, and he would have get what Dean had promised he would get. A new, and better, lease on life. He let a heated breath loose before he switched on his phone and moved to call the appropriate contact.

"Hey," he said, getting up and moving over for the window. "You can tell Oscar that I have what he wants. I'll meet with you tomorrow."

He then hung up, still staring out the window, towards the almost full moon.


Mason was sitting in front of his open window, gazing at the rain beginning to die down a bit. His own tears seemed to have died down along with it.

He couldn't believe how quickly this day had turned. When he had gotten up this morning, he was excited to give Stiles the research that he had asked him to do. He felt like he was really doing something. The truth was, he had gotten really into it as he looked into all those werewolf myths and legends about it and separating what was fact and fiction. Driven almost. A part of him still wondered why Stiles had wanted him to look so much into something called Le Bete or The Beast, or why he didn't want him to tell any of the others about it but Stiles swore it would really help. Then there was everything that happened with Corey. It started out well enough. They started hanging out at the weight room and Mason found himself having a good time. He was sure that Corey was too.

At least until he started bleeding out mercury and collapsed. Mason had never been so scared as he was, seeing him wheeled out of school and put into that ambulance. Scott had left try to help him and after school had been let out, he went straight to the hospital to find that Corey was dead. He had stopped by Ms. McCall and she told him that Scott and Theo found in the ambulance parking lot, stabbed. The Dread Doctors had killed him, just like Lucas and the others. Now Liam was nowhere to be found either. He was sure that he was out trying to keep Hayden safe. He so badly wanted for at least one to be saved at least.

His grip on the bottom of his windowsill tightened, making a small crack in the wood, unseen to him.


Virgil was riding shotgun with his partner for the night, one of garage's employees and their best tow operators, Eric. He was around double his age and everyone at the garage seemed to like him. Virgil never really spoke with him much but he seemed like a good enough guy. Though now Virgil would say that Eric seemed a bit irritable since they left. They were heading back to the garage, towing a car that had an accident up on the road. Apparently the driver turned too sharply and skidded right into a highway divider. No surprise as a heavy downpour, that seemed to be dying down, could cause. They picked up her car while she was taken away in an ambulance for Beacon Hills General.

"So, you think that woman will be alright?" Virgil asked, bored with the long silence. But Paul just kept on driving in silence. "I guess not," he mumbled off.

"She probably just got a concussion," Eric said gruffly. "She'll be fine in a day or two."

"Oh," Virgil shrugged. "Good."

Eric seemed to be giving off a frigid vibe and Virgil couldn't help but feel it was aimed at him. His boss, Zach and now Eric seemed to have beef with him. His boss was a dick and Zach clearly had issues beyond falling onto a car from on high. Those didn't surprise him. But what did he do to have a seemingly normal guy like Eric get on his case now?

"What's your problem?" he asked as they stopped at a red light.

"What?"

"What's your problem?" he repeated. "Do you have some kind of problem with me or something?"

Eric sighed and looked over at him. "No, you are causing the problem. Why do you think he has you out here getting trained on my job?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Richard," he said simply.

'Dick,' Virgil mentally called him.

"He's going to start denying me overtime. I can't afford that right now. Richard denied Spencer and Paul overtime all summer no matter how much they asked."

"Wait, what?"

The light went green and Eric moved them off. As Eric resumed talking, Virgil let his eyes fall out to the window and he froze. He quickly moved to blink his eyes. He could've sworn he just saw a big…something running down the next block.


Stiles drove away, no heading or destination in sight. He just wanted to put as much distance as he could between himself and the clinic. He blinked as he felt more of the burning hole in his chest pulse in him. As he did, a small sting erupted in his eye and he rubbed at his face to feel it damp, both from rainwater and shed tears. His eyes fell on the wrench laying next to him, almost glaring back at him. He then growled and grabbed it before striking the dashboard with it. A second later, there was a sort of coughing and grinding mix sound squealing from his engine. His speed started to go down.

"No, no, come on," he screeched out.

But his jeep slowed evermore and he went to pull himself into the nearest curb and stopped fully. He moved to try and start the car again but there was barely a rev as he turned the key. He just sighed and opened his door, stepping out and found himself breathing hard. The rain had just stopped but Stiles couldn't let himself appreciate the natural after smell of it as he usually would. Instead, he let himself glare at the jeep. Stiles couldn't help but feel it quit on him, just like Scott had seemingly just quit on him. His breathing began to quicken and he paced a bit to try and work off how anxious he was starting to get. As he walked, he noticed that he was still holding on to the wrench. The hole he was feeling in his heart burned even hotter and he moved to growl as he moved to just throw the wrench right at his own car window, smashing at it as the wrench bounced off it and clanged off when it hit the pavement.

Stiles' breathing began to get harder and he moved to grasp his chest over his heart. He began to stumble about until he leaned off his car, bending down and heaved deeply at the ground. Was this a panic attack? There was a screech and he saw that the hand he was using to lean on the jeep had out his claws. His newer claws. He was shifting! As Stiles moved to try and take deeper breaths, he could see a glimpse of the blue glow from his eyes in one of the small puddles left in the pavement. He had to settle himself so he quickly tried to call on his anchors. First one that came to mind was Scott, but immediately Scott's last words rang at him.

"Leave Stiles, please. Just go!"

His insides felt like they were twisting as that echoed in his head again. He tried to think of Malia, but he found it wasn't having any effect at all. He tried to envision her face, her voice, her cute smile at the sight of her favorite food: deer meat. Yet, he still felt his shift bursting through. Stiles began collapsing and fell down to the pavement as he started to crouch into himself in pain. He clenched his teeth, no his fangs in tighter as his breathing began coming out in wolfish huffs. Stiles then let his mind go to Lydia, to Kira, to Liam, but none of his friends seemed to be anchoring him back like before. In fact, thinking about each new person seemed to make it worse. His chest tightened and Stiles was feeling as if no air was making it inside at all. A loud, whining howl escaped him, trying to desperately lessen this pain any way he could. Before he knew it, he was running. Running fast, running hard.

Stiles didn't realize that something had heard that howl he let out and had started to run off towards it. Running up roofs of houses and buildings, making its way through the streets. Any house roof that it jumped to, made the whole house shake, startling the people inside, before quickly moving on to keep up its quest. It quickly found its way to the jeep and its nostrils flared as it inhaled the scent. A strong scent, of a strong predator. A predator that could rival himself. It could tell that the owner had taken off not too long ago. He would find this other, and kill him. The hunt, the chance of a good fight. exciting. It let out a bark from under its snout as it took off after him.

Stiles' vision had gone infrared and the sounds of smells of the buildings and streets aggravated him so he moved off for the trees, into the forest. The natural smells of the trees and mud beneath him making him feel…freer. Stronger. Stiles then moved to fall down on all fours, his fingers digging into the soggy ground, the digits starting to widen and thicken.

His monstrous pursuer was closing in. Ahead he could make out trees outlining the forest near the town and could detect Stiles' presence beyond them. It wouldn't be long before he had his fangs and claws into him, tearing him apart. He was so single-minded about reaching there that he didn't detect the police cruiser driving by and then ran smack dab into it. The creature was flung off a few yards down the road while the cruiser let off its sirens.

The sound pierced the night and reached Stiles' ears. At the sound of the police siren, Stiles' eyes widened as a memory broke its way through. A memory of sitting in his father's squad car, playfully arguing with his dad.

"You're not supposed to eat fries, especially curly fries," he had said.

"I'm carrying a lethal weapon. If I want the curly fries I will have curly fries," his dad had said back.

Stiles then let out deep breath and blinked to find himself out at the outskirts of the woods. The intense pain and heat he was feeling before, gone. He was a little wobbly as he tried to stand on his feet. At least one of his anchors still worked. Stiles then heard another loud wail from the police siren and the boy quickly shook his head before he moved off. He didn't need to be found by one of his dad's deputies right now.

However, for his hunter, he found that the scent and presence he had been pursuing had vanished. It was gone. There was another wail from the siren and he fell to all fours and then ran off.


Noah came out of his office and looked over to see that Lydia was still parked on the bench. She hadn't left the station the whole time since he had gotten back. Lydia seemed determined to not leave Parrish's side right now. But he seemed to be rubbing at her chest, her face scrunched up in discomfort.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked, walking over to her.

She blinked as she stopped rubbing and cleared her throat. "Yeah, it's just, I don't know. It was like my heart jumped a little while ago." Lydia seemed confused at what she was feeling. It felt different from her usual banshee like vibes. But she couldn't help but feel that something bad just happened.

"You're probably just tired. Maybe it might be best if you go home and get some sleep."

"No," she insisted. "I can't leave him now."

Noah can see she wasn't going to change her mind any time soon. "Alright, but we should at least call your mother. I'm sure she's worried about you."

As he moved to go and make the call himself, he heard dispatch on call with someone mentioning getting hit by something on the road.

"Unit 2, could you repeat that?" Dispatch asked.

"Uh, I'm at Oak Lane, near Michael Road. Something crashed into me. I'm okay but the perpetrator is now fleeing the scene, heading south towards Lincoln. Be advised, suspect appears to be loping in the middle of the road."

Dispatch got confused by that last part. "2, clarify loping."

"Uh, running on all fours," answered the deputy. "Suspect possibly a large animal."

At that, Noah froze as he heard Clark's voice come up next.

"Unit 5 to Dispatch, I'm turning the corner on Lincoln. Suspect is no longer loping but running," she said.

"10-4 Unit 5, clarify running."

"Two legs, moving fast."

"Copy, what's your speed?"

"45 to 50. Advise that suspect is too large to be human."

Noah then rushed on over and grabbed a headset.

"This is Sheriff Stilinski. Any and all units, do you have a clear visual?"

"Unit 4, suspect is incoming and, oh!" she suddenly shouted.

"Unit 4," Noah said desperately. "Come back."

"Unit 4," his deputy said, breathlessly and clearly startled. "Suspect just went and leapt over my car."

"This is Unit 5," said Clark. "I have a visual on suspect. Corner of Union, heading towards Beacon Hills High School. Confirm back on all fours."

"Uh, 10-4," Dispatch said, sending a nervous look Noah's way. "Can you give its 20?"

"In my rear view mirror. Coming right toward me. Advise, suspect is, oh my god!" She stopped there as she then went and let out a bloodcurdling scream.

"Clark, back off," Noah tried to say but there was nothing on the other end except the sound of banging.

He threw the headset down and ran for his keys as he heard dispatch radio everyone to head for the school. Noah prayed that Clark was okay. She was a good deputy and her his sister was already suffering from this mess with the Dread Doctors and their chimeras. He wouldn't lose her or any more of his deputies.

He raced over to the school and ran inside, his gun loaded and ready. Whatever it was that was here, might still be here. And not alone either.

"Clark!" he called out as he ran through the dark hallways.

"I'm here!" he heard in response.

A moment later, he spotted Deputy Clark running around the corner and heading for him.

"You okay?" he said, running for her.

She stopped as soon as he got to her, and was breathing hard. "Sheriff, my car…it's wrecked. I'm sorry, it's probably totaled" she said breathlessly. She took another two deep breaths and continued. "I ran half a mile to get here, trying to follow…the thing," she said, half in exhaustion and half in confusion at having no other word to describe it.

"Hey, hey, look forget about the car. Insurance will cover it," he threw in a little lightly to try and settle her.

"Yeah." She then pulled away and started walking with Noah following after her. "Well I wonder how much insurance the school has."

"What do you mean?"

Clark then led him off and Noah was brought to quite the sight. A hallway that was in shambles. A big hole was in the wall and part of the ceiling had caved in. In the center of it all, the school's front sign, split down the middle. It was as if it had been lifted off the school's front lawn and then hurled right through the wall. The light of the almost full moon pouring brightly inside and illuminating the whole thing in the dark corridor. What could've done this? Not a werewolf, surely. His son, Scott, Malia, Liam…none of them could do something like this even if they wanted to. Parrish was in holding and Lydia was at the station so it couldn't have been them. Then who or what did?

As Noah and Clark moved to take a closer look, at the other end of the hall, the three Dread Doctors stood in silence, overlooking the sight themselves. The Surgeon was flexing his hands in both anticipation and excitement. It would appear he had spoken too soon.

"New catalyst irrelevant," he said to the other two. "Success imminent."


A/N: I was not expecting this update to take so long. This chapter turned out to have gotten bigger than I had thought it would. I hope you all liked it though and stay safe.