Chapter 39 The Sword and the Spirit part 2
Stiles wasn't sure how long he was standing there. It was like his brain had frozen stiff along with his body. He was stuck on what Peter had just told him.
Peter just stared at his gobsmacked expression for a few moments and quickly grew bored. "You shouldn't keep your mouth open that long down here. You could catch flies and I'm sure you had enough of that."
That made Stiles blink himself out of his shocked stupor. "You're lying."
"Oh, so you and my niece didn't...you know."
"No," he sputtered out. "Uh, well, yeah I guess we kind of did."
"Then I'm sure you're smart enough to know what can happen when a boy and a girl go and do that. Besides, why would I lie about this?"
"Because lying is what you do," he spat back.
Peter shrugged. "I haven't always been the most truthful person, I won't deny that. But, every thing I ever did or said was for a reason."
"A psychotic, sociopathic reason," Stiles said with a heated sigh.
Peter continued. "So then ask yourself, what reason would I have to lie about this? About you knocking up my niece. How would that help me here?"
Stiles had to admit that Peter had a point there. The guy was a liar but it was always for his benefit. What benefit could this be for him?
"If you are right, then why didn't Derek say anything? He had to have known but he never said anything. Not the whole time when you two had come back."
"Oh, he wanted to. Well, words weren't exactly what he had in store. What he really wanted to do rip your throat out with his bare teeth but restrained the impulse. You have Cora to thank for that. She had asked that nothing be said to you."
Stiles found himself leaning against the glass wall of the cell. He suddenly realized why Derek was so against him going to Peter. It wasn't because he was sure he couldn't help him, but because he was afraid he would find out about this.
"Why wouldn't she want me to know?"
"Believe me, I asked the same question. It seems she didn't want to burden you. Beacon Hills is your home, but wasn't hers anymore and she didn't want to come back. She knew this only make things harder and more complicated for you. On top of everything else you were going through at the time. What with losing your power and then everything else she heard was happening since. She thought you had enough to deal with and wanted to spare you as much as she could."
"Why would she want to do that for me?" Stiles asked in a small voice.
Peter let out a small amused chuckle. "Apparently, as much as she tries to deny it, she actually cares about you. It certainly didn't help when she learned that you started to date my daughter, her newly discovered cousin. She thought it was for the best." He then let out a sigh. "It seems you have a way with many of the women of our family."
Stiles narrowed his eyes. That sounded like it had a double meaning but he was too eager for more to think too much on that. "What was it? A boy or a girl?"
"Don't know. I've kind of been out of touch ever since I was thrown in here. But something tells me that you didn't come here for my family gossip."
Stiles then remembered his real reason for coming here. As much as he wanted to know more, he needed to stay on task. Who knew how much time he still had left.
"It's the Beast," he told him. "It's come out."
That made the older werewolf nod. "Yeah, I figured as much. You know, as much as my senses are dulled down here, through all this mountain ash and the wolfsbane they keep pumping into me, sometimes, things manage to spark up with some life now and again. From time to time, I could just make out feral sounding howls coming from not too far away. You've been quite the busy boy."
"That's just it, Its not just me."
Stiles then went on to give Peter an abridged version of what was happening in Beacon Hills in the last month. The Dread Doctors, the chimeras and the new monster they had brought back to terrorize the town. Needless to say, Peter was terrified when Stiles finished with his story.
"Le Bete," he gasped. "It's really here?"
"Yeah, and it's starting to leave a trail of bodies behind."
"Seems the legends about Gevaudan are coming to life in our own little town. If half of them are true, then maybe I should be happy to be locked in here right now."
That made Stiles roll his eyes. "Glad you could find a silver lining in all this."
"Well what do you expect I can do about it?"
"Not you, me. I may have been able to turn into the new beast, but I can't control when I turn. It's happened only twice and neither time was when I wanted to. And I had no control of myself or even remember anything during either time either."
"Sounds like your transformation is still unstable."
"Yeah, that's what Derek thought. He said I'm locked in trauma and until I break out of it, it'll still be out of control."
"Ah," Peter said, seeing where this was going. "And that's where I come in."
"Yeah. You were same way, when you came out of your coma. You were able to shift into that beast knockoff when you were an alpha. And you had control of yourself."
"Not full control."
"But, enough to go around and hunt down those people Kate used to start the fire. And to stalk me, Scott and everyone else at the school. How did you do it?"
"And why should I help you?"
"Because that there is a giant killer monster out there and so is your daughter."
"A daughter who betrayed me," Peter shot back.
That got Stiles to glare hard at him. "No, you betrayed her. She wanted to give you a chance, even after all of us kept telling her not to. You could've proven all of us wrong, but you chose to prove us right instead. You owe her for that."
Peter's jaw tightened as he glared back at Stiles before he went and let out a tired breath. "I had the same problem you did, at the beginning. Sporadic shifts and blackouts of my time in that form. But, I found something something that steadily was able to help push through and give me some control and build it more each time."
"What was it?" Stiles eagerly asked.
"Hate."
"Hate?" Stiles repeated.
"Yes, hate. It's a powerful and primal emotion and one strongest motivators out there. It gave me focus and allowed me to push through the mental trauma I suffered for all those years."
"Not too well."
"Well, I was a work in progress. And it seems you are now too. You have your traumas now, what with just being an Omega banished from his pack, but banished by the very Alpha that made you his Second. Talk about cutting the ties that bind. Scott practically burned yours all away. Seems like we now have that in common."
"So what am I supposed to do? Hate everything around me?"
"Someone like you, I doubt you would have that much to use. I was able to use Hate because that's what was able to cut through my particular trauma. I blamed my sister for being too soft. To not see that we needed be the ones to strike before they did. She didn't want to make the first move and I hated her for that. I blamed the Argents for reducing me to rotting away in a living death for years, with only my thoughts as company. I hated them for stealing those years of my life I would never be able to get back. For costing me my pack. And...I blamed Laura for being the one that my sister chose to succeed her. Hated that it was she that Talia saw was worthy instead of me and she just left instead of being any of that worth."
Stiles went and chewed the inside of his cheek a bit. "Wow, you Hales do have your issues."
"Maybe that's you appeal to us so much Stiles, because you do too. After all, you were the one that the nogitsune chose to possess after all. That wasn't random. You want to find the way to cut through your trauma, take a good hard look at yourself and ask this: What is holding me back? Once you find that out, grab it by throat and rip it out."
"All right! Times up!" The orderly down the hall suddenly announced.
Stiles turned to see him coming over to try and collect him. Peter then went rose himself to his feet before moving to throw himself onto his cot.
"I wish you luck Stiles. Against Gevaudan, you'll need all that you could get, and then some."
The orderly then came over, grasped Stiles by the shoulder and asked if he had heard him. He told Stiles that time was up and he needed to leave, now. Stiles swallowed a bit and then nodded, letting the man go and take the lead. After two minutes, the man turned the corner but felt something off. He then looked down and noticed that his ring of keys wasn't clipped to his belt loop. He turned around, thinking they might have fallen when he noticed something else missing. Or rather someone.
When the guard had come to collect Stiles, he didn't know that Stiles had not been silently watching Peter. He had waited until the guy had come close enough to let him subtly take the man's keys without him noticing. He had then slipped away towards where he felt Lydia was being kept before he had been hit with that wolfsbane.
Liam was carefully moving through the town's irrigation tunnels, trying to find his way to where the Dread Doctors had their lab. Once he found it then maybe he could find where they were keeping The Beast. Though, over an hour, Liam started feeling that he was wandering around in circles. Every other corridor and turn looked roughly the same as the last one. He didn't even know where he even was right now. Coming upon a junction, which had six different directions he could go, Liam let out a tired sigh as he spun around for a bit before he settled on a direction. Liam went to make a turn to the right but stopped when he saw that someone was there. The last person he expected to see.
"You lost?" Scott asked him calmly.
"Completely," he mumbled. "How did you know I was down here?" Liam hadn't told anyone where he was going.
"I followed you," Scott answered, starting to move over to him.
Liam's eyes widened. "Why are you following me?"
"Why are you down here?" Scott countered.
"I'm just trying to figure out if this is where they took us? Me and Hayden. Malia said that she was down here too."
Scott blinked. "Malia?" He hadn't remembered finding her at school today, or well anywhere lately.
"She also wanted you to know that you were right."
Scott guessed that Malia must've come down here for some reason but he couldn't begin to guess what that reason even was. Malia had been just as absent from his life as Stiles right now. And the both of them were running around doing who knows what, with who knew what. Stiles was going off with Virgil and Zach, and this morning seemed to add Parrish to the mix. Scott knew Malia was off with her father and at least one other person. What the two of them were doing, he could only guess that it was something that they felt he couldn't, or wouldn't, be able to help them with. Kind of like what Kira was going through after her time with the skinwalkers though he didn't know if he really understood it, by what he heard between her and her father this morning.
He didn't really know how to feel about any of this, given everything that's happened so far, but the truth was, he needed them. Just like he needed everyone else too, including Liam. Right now, he needed to do something for one of them. Needed to be an alpha again.
Scott looked over to the side. "There's a turn you keep passing," pointing it out to him. "It's easy to miss."
Liam heavily sighed. "How many times did you watch me pass it?" he asked tirelessly.
"Five." Liam nodded, embarrassed, and Scott decided that he had enough. "C'mon. Let's see if we can find it together."
"Okay," he mumbled.
The two of them then headed off and made the turn down to a new tunnel. After a few minutes of silence, Scott decided to break it as a thought came to him.
"You said that you saw Malia today? But she wasn't in class."
"Well, she just showed up in the locker room and told me about the tunnels. Told me that the Dread Doctors were here. She said to tell you that you had been right. And also to tell Stiles something."
"She had a message for Stiles too? What?"
"That chimeras had a vibration and that was the way to track them."
"Vibrations?" Scott mumbled almost to himself.
"Yeah, but, I don't get why couldn't she tell Stiles that herself. She is his girlfriend."
Scott suddenly felt awkward. "Uh, not anymore. Stiles and Malia...they kind of broke up."
"They did? Why?" Scott was silent for a moment but that seemed to be answer enough. "Theo." Liam guessed.
Scott's jaw tightened up. "Honestly, I don't know. They didn't say anything but, something tells me that he had something to do with it."
Theo must've said or done something to come between Stiles or Malia. Scott had his suspicions about what might have happened. Considering what Theo told him about him being a wolf/coyote chimera, how comfortable Malia seemed to have gotten with Theo, and how he and Stiles had interacted with each other back at his house or in the tunnel after the Supermoon. But Scott knew he would never ask either of them if his theory was right.
"Yeah, well, that fits." Liam stiffened up awkwardly. "I mean, he was the one that got me to...go after you that night."
Scott sighed as the memory played back for him. "You just wanted save Hayden. Theo took advantage of that."
"But I still tried to kill-" he tried to argue back.
Scott cut in. "Liam, he used you. Used you to try to get rid of me." His tired gaze dropped a bit. He was thinking about how Theo had done the same thing to him, using him to go against Stiles. "Just like he used me to get rid of Stiles. Now he's off by himself because it actually hurts him to be around any of us. Just like it hurts everyone else to be around him. It's what happens to werewolves thrown out of the pack by the alpha."
Liam slowly moved his hand to his chest, over his heart. "So that's what it was." That made Scott look to him in confusion. "Uh, I ran into Stiles out in the woods a few nights ago. When I did, I could swear I felt some kind of pain hit me right in the heart, but-"
"It vanished in like a second," Scott finished for him. "Yeah, same thing with Kira and Malia. It's supposed to last as long as we're around him but Satomi thinks it has to do with me dying that night. The death of the alpha is supposed to free banished wolves from that fate but I came back."
"Can we fix it?" Liam muttered.
"I don't know. I'm hoping if I can get Stiles to come back to the pack, maybe. But Satomi told me that now that he's an Omega, she's thinking of recruiting Stiles into her pack instead. She's giving me until the next full moon to try and get him back before she does. I've tried to talk to Stiles, but he somehow always gets mad and leaves if we're around each other too long. I mean, I've tried apologizing to him, told him I was sorry and I knew I made a mistake. I said he can come back and wanted him to, but...he wouldn't do it."
The memory of him leaving and not completing their symbol came back to him.
Liam sighed as he moved to kneel back into the wall and slide his way down to the floor. "Maybe that's the problem."
"What do you mean?"
"Apologizing. Saying that you're sorry. It didn't work because it doesn't really do anything. I mean, it won't work with me saying it to you."
"Well, you haven't actually said it to me yet," Scott pointed out.
"Yeah," Liam nodded. "Because I know I can't." He then moved to rub at his nose as he sniffled, beginning to recall something he didn't really like thinking about. "Back at my old school, at Devenford, I got into a fight with this kid. I went and knocked two of his teeth out. They made me write a letter of apology but we knew it meant nothing. We both knew, sooner or later, we're gonna get into another fight. An apology wasn't going to change any of that. That's why I can't say I'm sorry to you. I feel like I have to do something."
"So that's why you came down here by yourself?"
"I tried to kill you Scott. Because of me, you did die. Theo may have been the one to do it, but I helped make sure that he could. Saying I'm sorry is not going to do anything to fix that. I feel like...like I need to save your life. Like that's the only way. The only way I can make it up to you. To everyone."
"Is that what you think?"
"Well, if I did, just came to you and said I was sorry, could you really have forgiven me for what I did? Right then and right there? Like nothing had happened? I know you can't, because no one ever can. Not you. Not me. And not Stiles either."
Scott just silently stared down at Liam, letting himself bask in his words. This morning, Ms. Ramsey basically told him the same thing. That saying sorry doesn't change anything that's happened, to anyone. An apology won't change what Liam did to him. And it won't change what Scott did to Stiles. A flash of heat from his abdomen reminded Scott that the scars they made on each other during the Supermoon were still there and apologies won't make them go away.
And it wasn't the first time. Over a year ago, there was another night of pain, when Allison had helped her grandfather take Stiles and it nearly killed him then. Scott had tried to appeal to Stiles to forgive her after she apologized, that it wasn't really her fault, but he wouldn't. Stiles kept telling him that he just didn't understand. Now...now he was in the same boat that Stiles and Allison were, with Liam. And, maybe he was finally starting to understand.
He moved to lean down next to him. "Well, if you feel you need to save me, you might just get your chance down here."
Liam doubtfully scoffed. "Yeah right. We've been wandering around for hours and all we found is some serpent carving on the wall there."
Scott wanted to laugh before he did a double take. He turned to look over at the wall and saw that there was indeed a serpent. Well, two of them. The Ouroboros symbol. He walked over and started to give it a better look.
Seeing Scott's reaction, Liam stood up and headed over to him. "You think it's important?"
Scott started to pull and yank on it and saw that it moved when he turned it. He then went and kept turning, hearing gears shift as he did, until it stopped and felt something change. They looked around and saw that a new path had opened. This was the way to the Dread Doctors' lair.
The two of them went down the new tunnel until they came upon a metal door. They pulled it open and found themselves having a gun trained on them. It was Chris Argent. He had it on them but quickly lowered it when he saw that it was just Scott and his beta. Scott was about to ask what he was doing here when he caught a whiff of another scent. An unfortunately familiar one.
"You didn't," he huffed out.
"I had no choice," Chris said to him.
A moment later, the scent's owner came out from around the corner and Scott found himself face to face with Gerard Argent. The man looked different from the last time they had seen each other. He was up and about, no worse for wear, and as strong as ever.
"Hello Scott," he calmly said to him. That made the alpha shift his eyes in anger, seeing the one that brought him and his friends so much pain. Gerard seemed quite intrigued by the response. "Well, I haven't seen that color on you. It suits you."
Scott's gaze went from Gerard to Chris, shifting back to normal as it did. Chris looked apologetically back to him.
"Who's the old guy?" Liam asked, cutting the awkwardness short.
Gerard let out a chuckle. "A new young face. Well, at the moment, they would call me a necessary evil. And they would be right."
Scott couldn't believe that Gerard was back, on his feet and with his strength returned. He could only guess that Chris had done something to make that happen. "What were you thinking?" he demanded.
"That Gerard is right," he told him. "We need him."
"He's right," Gerard cut in. "If you want to catch a werewolf like the Beast of Gevaudan, you're going to need more than one Argent."
"He knows all the stories. All the folklore. Everything written and everything passed down," Chris said, making his way over to them.
"You're sure about this?"
"Take a look."
He then led them off to where there was an etching carved into the wall. It showed two monstrous figures clashing with each other.
"What is that?" Scott asked as he gazed at it.
"The one on the right is the Beast of Gevaudan. Do you know what the other one is?"
Scott shook his head while Liam paled at the image.
"The Hellhound," answered Gerard. "The guardian of supernatural places. They're both creatures of the night. But you may know them as ordinary people during the day."
"And, most likely, neither of them know what they are," Chris finished up.
At that, Scott and Liam shared a look. While they might know who the Beast was, well Gevaudan at least, they knew who the hellhound was. But the Argents caught the look and knew that this all meant something to them.
"What is it?" Chris asked.
Scott heard a voice telling him that he had to be careful about what they said. About the hellhound with Gerard here. A voice that sounded alot like Stiles. But it also said that he still had to say something to throw him off. And Scott knew just what to say.
"We found a message. Damnatio Memoriae."
This made the two Argents share a look.
"They want it to remember," Gerard voiced out.
"Then that gives us some time."
"Time for what?" Liam asked.
"Time to avoid this."
Chris then moved towards the image and started to kick away some tiles at the bottom. It revealed more images. The two creatures were fighting over a pile of corpses. They all had depictions of terror stuck on their faces.
Liam paled even more. "What is that?"
"It's us," Scott gasped out. "All of us."
Lydia was stuck. She didn't know how to focus her voice as a weapon. And Meredith was being zero help in learning how.
"Why can't you just tell me?" she huffed out impatiently.
Meredith just shook her head. "You have to find your own way."
"Well why can't you tell me yours?"
She actually shrunk back a bit. "Because...my way got people hurt," Meredith said in a small voice, but one filled with pain...and regret. "Some days it was quiet for me. Others, all I could hear was screaming. People dying."
Lydia blinked as she stepped closer. "What people?"
"Everyone. Everywhere. I was at chemistry class. I had my hands over my ears. The teacher was trying to figure out what was wrong. I then took my hands and started hitting the desk until I couldn't take it anymore and I just screamed.
"What happened?" she asked, coming up to the glass wall.
Tears of anger and fear started leaking from the sides of Meredith's eyes. "All of the windows shattered. I saw kids with glass in their arms, in their faces. Some of them had started bleeding from their ears. They said it was an explosion, caused by chemicals. But everyone knew it was me." She then leaned in to stare directly into Lydia's eyes. "Find a better way, Lydia. My voice, it's like a bomb going off. Yours needs to be a bullet."
Suddenly, there was an echo of a click sounding through the air.
"Did you hear that?" Lydia asked.
She became scared. That sound, she recognized it. It was the sound of a gun clicking right before it was ready to be fired. Lydia saw Meredith's eyes looking behind her shoulder and she then turned around to see that there was a new window in the wall behind her. In it, she saw what seemed to be a dark room. No, it was more of a cavern. There was a girl, sitting off in a corner. Lydia's eyes widened when she saw that it was Malia. She looked scared as a giant shadow started to overtake her and Lydia saw that it was from a woman. And she was carrying an assault rifle.
"What is this?" she frantically asked Meredith.
"I think you know what a banshee premonition feels like."
Lydia looked back to see Malia looking helpless as the figure moved to aim the gun at her. "She's going to die," she realized.
A slightly warm feeling came over the palm of her hand and she subconsciously rubbed her fingers. It was like someone was grasping it. And it was, back out in the physical world. Her ears could pick up a distant voice. She couldn't really make out a lot of the words being spoken but she recognized whose voice it was.
"Stiles," she gasped out. "Stiles, Malia's in trouble!"
But Meredith shook her head. "His voice may reach you but yours can't reach him."
"I have to warn him!" she shouted frantically back.
"It won't matter," Meredith told her sadly.
Lydia began to tear up a bit. As much as she didn't want to admit, she knew Meredith was right. It wouldn't matter. "Because it's happening now," she voiced out sadly. She turned back to gaze upon Malia's scared face as she was being leered down by the Desert Wolf. "She's found her." But her eyes widened when Malia was suddenly joined by another. Also in the Desert Wolf's sight. "Mr. Tate?" she gasped.
Stiles had managed to find Lydia's room. It took him only five keys before he found the one for her door and let himself in. His breath was caught in his throat, seeing her lying on the bed, all but dead to the world. She was staring out with unblinking eyes, skin paler than usual and even her hair seemed thinner. She was definitely...less than what Lydia Martin should be. He knelt down over to her and went to lightly squeeze her cold, clammy hand.
"I really hope I'm not hurting you by being here. It seems like it's hurting every one of our friends being around me now. Malia, Liam, even Kira. Cost of being a banished Second apparently. Hopefully banshees are the exempt." He went to grasp her hand tighter, hoping she'd give some sign that she was still there. "Oh come on Lydia," he sighed out. "We need you. You have to come back to us. You have to wake up."
"I think that's enough."
Stiles stiffened and turned to look back at the door to see Lydia's mother standing there, with two orderlies standing not too far away, including the one he ditched.
He went to release Lydia's hand and stood up to fully face her. "How are you-?"
"As soon as you checked in here, they were kind enough to call and notify me immediately. Now, could you leave my daughter to her rest?"
Stiles stiffened his jaw at her before he deflated and gave her a nod. He turned to take one last look at Lydia's face when his eyes caught something at the side of her head.
"Hey," he muttered before moving down to take a better look. "Her hair's been cut." It didn't just look like her hair was thinner. It was thinning, because it was being taken away.
Ms. Martin huffed as she started for him. "Enough Stiles. You need to go now."
But he held his hand out to her as he lifted her hair to get a better look and revealed a bald spot. But it wasn't natural. It was shaved in a professional manner.
"They shaved her head. Did you know about this? What, are they going to drill into her head?!" he demanded of her.
"Are you crazy?!" she spat back at him.
Ms. Martin shoved passed him and moved to try and flatten Lydia's hair back to how it was, to hide it. "It's for ECT," she said, stroking the side of her daughter's face. "Electroconclusive therapy. They shave small portions of the scalp. It's done under general anesthesia and it's perfectly safe."
"Safe?" Stiles said, full of doubt. "Are you kidding me?"
"Look at her Stiles. Do you think I'm not trying everything to bring her out of this."
"I am looking. And that, that is not ECT."
Her face hardened as she glared at him. "How would you know? You're not a doctor. You're a kid Stiles. A wild and reckless one who helped put my daughter here in the first place. You and the rest of those friends of yours. Now, could you all just please go and leave us in peace?"
The orderlies moved to step inside the room and Stiles could see that they were prepared to use force if they needed to. Stiles could see another one, a woman, outside the door, gripping a syringe which was no doubt full of more of the wolfsbane concoction he was given before. He deflated and looked back over at Lydia's mom.
"You think you know what's going on but you don't." He then narrowed his eyes. "Or maybe you do, but you just don't want to see it. Just...make sure that Lydia doesn't pay for it. Not like her grandmother had to."
He then moved to walk out of the room with the orderlies in tow. The orderly woman then stepped inside and Natalie Martin thanked her for her call before she moved to give Lydia a goodbye kiss on her forehead before heading out herself. The orderly watched her go before she told Lydia that it was time for her shower.
As they turned the corner and started to head for the gate out of the ward, the orderly that brought Stiles down here held out his arm to stop him before bringing his hand out. Stiles sighed before went into his pocket and brought out his ring of keys.
"Sorry," he muttered while returning them.
The man just stiffened his jaw before he went and re-clipped them to his belt and then gave Stiles a hard shove at his back, pushing him towards the gate. Stiles stumbled a bit before he went and bumped up into another pair of passing orderlies coming inside.
"Oh, sorry," he said to the one he hit.
He gave him an annoyed look before he and his partner went off. Stiles gave the other two a last look as stayed where they stood, glaring at him. Stiles reached the gate and was let out by the guard, using his keycard. He thanked him before he went to head on back up. As he did, he cast a look down to the keycard he nicked from the orderly he bumped into, as well as the key to Lydia's room that he had taken from the other guy's key ring.
Malia moved through the entrance, after both her dad and Braeden had insisted to go in before her. Malia let her eyes roam about and there didn't seem to be any sign of anyone.
"You sure this is the place?" her dad mumbled softly as he kept his sights, and shotgun, pointed straight ahead, looking for the smallest bit of movement.
"Yeah," she mumbled back. "This is the place I saw. They have to be here."
"Keep alert," Braeden instructed Henry as they headed farther in.
Yet the further they went, the more that the place seemed no more out of the ordinary. There were a few military trucks and jeeps, all caked with layers of dust, and not a sign of anyone even being here.
"Something's wrong," Malia said suddenly.
Braeden tensed up. "What, like a scent?"
"I don't know."
They moved passed some more of the jeeps before they came upon a light up ahead. One that was shining down on a man bound and gagged in a chair. It was Deaton. Malia and her dad both smiled at the sight of him. They found him and there seemed to be no sign of Corrine anywhere. They figured that had gotten lucky and came along while she had gone out. Quickly, Henry moved to run to him while Malia smiled at finally getting a win. But that smile faded when she picked up something in the air.
But Braeden didn't share in their optimism. Something wasn't right. This was too simple and too easy. When it came to the Desert Wolf, nothing was simple or easy. Her instincts were right when she noticed how Deaton's eyes were frantically moving about, as if to try to say something. Braeden noticed when his eyes seemed to lock onto the sight of her. Or rather, to the one behind her. Not to mention that Malia suddenly tensed up. That was all the proof she needed. Braeden tried to turn and get her gun ready on him but Theo was ready and intercepted her. She tried to fight him but she yanked the gun from her grip and swung the butt of it across her head, knocking her out.
Henry had reached Deaton and was trying to cut him free but he abandoned the effort when he heard the struggle between Braeden and Theo.
"The little bastard, I knew it," he mumbled as he raised his shotgun.
He couldn't get a shot while Braeden and Theo were moving around but after he knocked her down, he was ready to take his shot. But Malia had stepped in the way, ready to fight him, blocking him.
Malia bared her fangs but Theo moved to train Braeden's gun on her.
"You sensed it didn't you?" he sneered down at her.
"Malia, get out of the way!" Henry shouted at her, ready to fire once he had a clean shot.
But it was like Malia and Theo didn't hear him.
"A chemosignal," continued Theo. "From me. It was regret." He looked up at Malia who glared skeptically at him. "I really didn't want to have to do this. And especially this," he said right before he went and pulled the trigger.
The buckshot hit Malia square in her stomach and Henry screamed out in horror as he saw his daughter stumble back. Seeing the red starting to leak out between her fingers made him see red. Henry moved to aim at Theo and he viciously screamed as he pulled the trigger. Theo quickly ducked over in between the trucks to avoid the shot, dropping the gun in the process.
Henry ran over to his daughter and she looked back at her with teary, shifted blue, eyes. He grit his teeth and ran off where Theo had vanished to. His rifle was aimed out and he quickly detected movement to his left and went and let out a shot in that direction. It didn't seem to have hit anything.
"You didn't want to shoot my daughter!" he raged out. "You felt regret doing it! Well, I hope you could sense what I'm feeling! Because when I empty a barrel into your face, you're going to sense how satisfied I'm going to feel when I do it!"
"How touching," he heard behind him.
He turned around just in time for a hand to grab his gun and make him let out a shot that went uselessly to the side, as another hand grabbed his throat. His eyes widened as those hands didn't belong to Theo.
The next thing Malia knew, she saw her father flying through the air and land some feet away from her. He was groaning off softly in pain and she could smell a hint of fresh blood coming off him.
"Dad!" she painfully cried out.
"Dad?" There was the sound of heavy footsteps as a figure came out of the shadows. She looked from Henry's folded up form to Malia. "Funny, he doesn't look like the man I laid with, well, unless he really let himself go."
Malia tensed at the sight of her. It was really her. It was Corrine. The Desert Wolf. Her mother.
Corrine raised out her hand to catch Braeden's rifle being thrown at her. Theo had come back out.
"We had a deal," he told her.
She then went and reached into her pocket. "So we did." She then threw it towards him which he caught in the same manner.
Theo looked and smiled at the jar he was now holding. It was containing Belasko's talons. They let out a faint blue glow which Theo let his own eyes glow yellow in response.
"That's what this was about," Malia painfully gasped out.
He shrugged as he pocketed them. "You should've listened to Braeden and your dad. I do regret having to do this but it was the only way. It's too bad. We really could've had something Malia."
She narrowed her eyes as Theo went off to leave them all to their fate. Going out of the main entrance, he reached into his pocket to see that he had gotten a text from Tracy. It simply read: We got him. Theo's face brightened up to his usual smirk. Things were finally coming back together.
Back in the base, Henry was turning around where he was lying and revealed that Corrine seemed to have stabbed in the torso with her claws before throwing him off. Malia's eyes widened at the sight of it.
"Dad?"
"It's just a scratch," he said, trying to settle his daughter. "I'll be okay Malia."
Hearing that made Corrine's beautiful face turn savage and ugly. "Malia? Malia?!" she started spitting out angrily. "You should know that's not your name. Talia Hale gave it to you."
"Because it's a family name," Malia panted out. "Yeah, my dad told me."
"Oh did he?" Corrine asked with a savage smile as she looked back at Henry Tate for a moment before she went and gave Malia a hard kick in the stomach, close to her gunshot wound. Henry cried out for her to leave Malia alone but Corrine ignored him. "Did he also tell you that Talia Hale took you from me before I could name you myself. You don't have a name." She then went and slammed the butt of the gun into Malia's face. "You were never meant to have one. Just like you were never meant to have your power. Your strength. Your ability to heal. You know why you have that Malia? Because you stole it, from me," she spat out as she pushed Malia to be flat on the ground. She then stood over her. "Tell me when it hurts," she said before she went to stomp her heal on Malia's wound.
"No!" Henry shouted at the sight of this woman hurting his daughter and hearing her scream. He painfully pulled himself up a bit to reach behind himself and pull out the small handgun he had kept hidden within his inside jacket pocket.
Hearing the click, Corrine turned around and just managed to avoid a direct shot from it but the bullet did manage to graze her upper right arm. "That was a mistake," she spat.
"I won't let you take another daughter from me!" Henry spat back.
He fired another shot but surprise was lost to him now. Corrine avoided it and the next shot before she leapt for him, making him lose his gun. Henry had a second to feel the pain from his wound before he was lifted up and slammed hard into the nearest truck, held up the collars of his jacket.
"You are a deluded fool. She isn't your real daughter. Your wife didn't have to suffer to bring her into this world," she savagely hissed at him. "I did."
"No," he spat back. "She was her mother. And you killed her and my other little girl."
"They were lies. Just like you."
Malia then saw that she was bringing out her claws. She was going to kill her dad. But the pain from her wounds were too much. She couldn't stand up, let alone stop her. Corrine brought her hand back, ready to strike a killing blow when suddenly lights all around them started to spark and blow. It shocked them all but Malia also heard her name distantly being shouted at her. Once she did, the pain seemed to numb and she found the strength to get to her feet and roar out at Corrine. Corrine let go of Henry as she turned to face her daughter. She went and roared back at her.
"My mom, my real mom" Malia growled, shifting her eyes. "And my sister, they're dead because of you. I won't let you take my dad too."
"Oh, well if it makes you feel any better. I didn't care about them. Just like daddy dearest here, they were just in the way. What I really cared about, was killing you!" Corrine shouted, shifting her own blue eyes.
With that, Malia then leapt for her while Corrine made her own charge. They traded a few blows until Malia and Corrine had their hands locked in on each other. They pushed at each other but it seemed that Corrine was just a little bit more stronger. She forced Malia back and was ready to make the same kind of killing strike on her that she was about to make on Henry moments ago but she was stopped by a shout, from Deaton.
He had been loosened by Henry enough to help remove his gag and he shouted for Corrine to stop. "You can't do this Corrine. It won't work, not unless it's a full moon."
Corrine was frozen in action. She had to wonder if the man was lying to her. However, she didn't get too much time to consider it because there was suddenly a loud crackling. Which was followed by the sight of the wall behind Deaton starting to crumble. A hole then suddenly blew open and everyone looked over to the sight of a giant monster trying to make it's way inside.
The Beast of Gevaudan.
Deaton gasped as it went and reached over for him, pulling him in. Malia gave Corrine a look before she grit her teeth and charged to try and save Deaton. Corrine just shook her head and went to make a break for it. Malia wen and ripped the binding off of Deaton with her claws and pulled him away just in the nick of time before the beast had pulled the chair fully towards it. Malia then went over to help her father to his feet while Deaton ran for Braeden. They then hurried off as the beast tried to break its way fully through the wall. As they splintered off, the howl of the beast echoed out through the whole of the base and its grounds.
Stiles left through the doors of Eichen's main entrance and let himself take in a deep breath before he quickly let it all out. This visit was so mentally straining that he felt exhausted. But, as he made his way for the perimeter gate, he let himself feel inside his pocket for both the keycard and the room key that he had swiped from the guards. They were one step closer now. He picked up the pace and ran for Parrish's deputy van.
"Hey Parrish," he called out, bringing the objects out triumphantly. "I got them."
But Stiles' mood dropped when he saw that Parrish wasn't in the car. He wondered where he had gone off to when he felt something ram into him. Stiles flew off onto the pavement of the empty street, landing right on his side. He then lifted himself up to see that it was Parrish. He was staring down at him with a far off look in his face.
"Parrish, what the hell?!" he cried out at him.
Parrish didn't say anything. He just stared off at him and Stiles saw a fiery, orange glow come across his eyes. In an instant, his whole body seemed to go ablaze. Flames came out of nowhere and his clothes started to burn away. In a matter of seconds, he was wrapped up in fire but was still calmly staring Stiles down. Stiles got up to his feet and grit his teeth.
It seemed that he was going to be exhausted in more ways than one tonight.
Scott and Liam came into the animal clinic to gather some supplies to take back to his house when they saw they weren't alone. Malia, her dad, Braeden and Deaton were all there. They all looked a bit beaten up, with Braeden holding a small icepack to her head while Malia was helping to apply a seal a bandage at her father's side, but they seemed relieved. Scott became happy seeing Deaton again and moved over to embrace him. He then looked over at Malia and realized just what it was that she had been up to. He threw a grateful smile at her which she returned. She then looked over at Liam who caught her eye. Wordlessly, she asked him a question through her eyes and Liam nodded. He went to leave the clinic while Scott moved to hear just what had happened with all of them.
Both Virgil and Zach were going to stay with the Stilinski's for a while, at least until this whole mess with the Dread Doctors and the bestial Frankenstein were dealt with. Virgil didn't have it in him to argue, especially after seeing the long row of bodies being wheeled into the morgue, which he almost had been a part of. The chill from that thought still hadn't warmed even hours later. Zach wasn't a hard sell either. The scene at the hospital had shaken him up considerably as well.
After flipping for it Virgil had been the one to win the bed in the Stilinski's guest room while Zach took the inflatable the Sheriff brought up from the basement.
"Sure this won't be a problem?" Virgil asked as he slammed his travel bag on the mattress. "You know, me getting the bed."
Zach was sitting off at the desk on the opposite side looking over something on his laptop and he shrugged his shoulders without looking back at him. "It's not my first time on an inflatable. Besides it's better than the couch."
"Or a nest in a tree," Virgil quipped out. That made Zach turn to throw him a glare, and the finger. Virgil's eyes then went on to the screen beyond him. He could just make out some kind of old style illustration. "What are you looking at?"
"Oh, its the legend Le Bete Du Gevaudan."
"The prized success of the Dread Doctors?"
"Yeah, I thought I should brush up on the monster that are going to use to kill us all. I'm trying to look through some of the original lore of this thing."
Virgil stepped over and saw the drawing of a crudely drawn giant wolf as it tore into a helpless woman's throat. His mind's eye instantly conjured the image of a woman in a body bag that had her throat torn out, staring up at him with blank eyes frozen in terror. He blinked rapidly to make the image go away. He tried to read the text but it seemed to be in French.
"So," he said, clearing his throat. "What does it say? I took Spanish so I can't make heads or tails of any of it."
Zach cleared his throat and settled a bit in the chair. "Well, I'm no expert. I did only manage a B+ average but from what I can make out, in the 18th Century, a monster terrorized the French countryside. Small villages and travel caravans fell under attack and any who came upon it were found ripped to pieces. Maybe around a hundred or something died. Many claimed that it was the work of a demon."
The sight of the monster wrapped in shadow, brandishing razor sharp claws and leering down at him with its bright white, blue eyes, grinning as it was about to tear into him, made Virgil pale.
"Yeah, well if this is the same thing, I'd say that part is actually true," he said before clearing his throat. "Does it say how they got rid of it?"
Zach scrolled down a bit. "Uh, well, it says that a bounty was made on the beast and many set off to hunt it down. Many tried but none succeeded until a brave hunter managed to pierce it's heart with a silver weapon."
"You mean a silver bullet?"
"It doesn't say, but yeah, maybe. I mean, that whole silver bullet thing had to come from somewhere, right? Any way, after, the king rewarded the hunter with the bounty and a noble title, knighting and gifting him with a silver sword."
"Prestigious," Virgil dryly mumbled. "But if silver is mentioned that much then it must be true right?"
"I don't know about that."
That hadn't come from either of them. They both looked back to see a young teenager standing at the door. Zach quickly recognized him and got nervous.
"My mom has this old antique silver frame and when I tried touching it, I didn't get so much as a blister," Liam somewhat awkwardly continued on.
"Hey Liam," Zach said, standing up from the chair. "What are you doing here?"
"Zach," he said, giving him a small nod. "I'm looking for Stiles."
"He isn't here right now."
"Oh," Liam mumbled in disappointment. He then turned to look over at Virgil. "Uh, and you, you look familiar."
"Yeah, we've met, at the hospital. You were there with Scott McCall, looking for Zach after he had his...crash landing."
Liam blinked as the memory came back to him. "Oh, yeah, you're the neighbor. Virgil."
"And you must be one of the resident werewolves we have here in Beacon Hills," he said back.
"What are you talking about?" Liam nervously stuttered.
"Spare me the cheap denials. Stiles told me everything. He kind of had to when I saw him turn from a big wolf back into himself."
Liam let himself relax and deflated. "Oh...so, what are the two of you doing here in Stiles' house?"
Virgil blinked and leaned back into the side of the desk. "We're just crashing here for a bit. You know, until the monster that those reject Frankensteins made and let loose is dealt with."
"And what better place to hold up than with the town sheriff and his beast of a son," Zach added. "Not to mention keeps that psycho Theo Raeken from trying to get to me like those other nut cases he has."
"Hey" Liam sharply cut in. "They're not all nutcases. Some of them are just...scared."
Virgil narrowed his eyes a bit. That sounded a little too personal back there. "Well Liam, why are you here anyway?"
"I just need to talk to Stiles? Do you know where he is?"
Both Virgil and Zach just shrugged and shook their heads. "What about the Sheriff?"
"You just missed him. He went out to pick up some things," Virgil answered for him. "Said he'd be about an hour."
Liam sighed. "I can't stay here that long." There was a curfew and he couldn't afford trouble with his parents on top of everything else.
"Just call him later."
"No, he needs to know this right away. Malia found something out. It's about the chimeras."
That made them, especially Zach, super attentive.
"What about them?" Zach asked him.
"A way to find them." He then looked over at Zach. "And, maybe a way to help hide you."
Theo couldn't hide the spring in his step as he made his way into the part of the lab where he was holed up with Tracy, Josh and Corey waiting for him. Yet, that faded when he came through the door and found the state his pack was in. Corey was crutched into a scared, fetal position. Josh was sitting on the floor, grasping his bleeding leg. Tracy was the only still on her feet, but was tightly holding on to her bleeding abdomen.
"All this to capture one blind werewolf," he said to them, with as much criticism as he could fit in his tone.
"Uh, recently re-blinded," said their new guest. "Unfortunately, the healing of my eyes by a dark druid proved to be only temporary. A parting gift from Scott McCall. Friend of yours?"
It was Deucalion.
Theo went and started to calmly approach him. "We're working through some issues."
That made Deucalion actually roll his pale, red and pasty eyes.
"He knows why he's here," Tracy told him. "He knows about the Beast."
"I believe you mean Beasts young lady. You use the plural term when there is more than just one of something. Really, school education seems more lacking with every generation." Deucalion smiled. "Seems that young Mr. Stilinski tapped into that potential after all."
"He's still lacking," Theo told him. "But he's not the particular beast we should be caring about right now."
"Ah, yes," Deucalion nodded. "The Beast of Gevaudan. Quite the legendary marvel of the werewolf world. And, you believe I'm going to show you how to steal its power." There was unhidden doubt all over Deucalion's tone.
Theo went to lean in closer to him. "I think you're open to negotiation. Just tell me what it is that you want."
Deucalion's face sharpened and he went and brought out the claws in his left hand. "I want his eyes. I want the eyes of Scott McCall. On the tips of my claws."
Theo let himself smile. "I think that can be arranged."
A/N: I want to sorry that I'm sorry for the long delay. Luckily, I'm getting some time off real soon so the next chapter will be hopefully up sometime within the next week and a half. It will be an original and have a return of our two favorite Hale siblings. Also, everyone will be starting to get ready for the big Eichen jailbreak but, not with everyone working together.
