Calculatingly Wise

41

"Scott! Stay awake," Tessa said.

Scott nodded and his eyelids continued drooping. "Scott! Stay awake! Scott!" Malia yelled.

His eyes shot open and Tessa noticed a faraway look in his eyes. Lydia gave him directions. "Scott, try to find him. Find him in any memory. Good or bad."

Scott looked around frantically and his breath quickened. "What's happening to him?" Malia asked.

Lydia shook her head. "I don't know."

Malia moved closer to the machine and looked at Scott. "He doesn't look good. He looks... lost."

Tessa studied her cousin's face. "I think he is. His mind is being flooded with memories, like they're burying him alive."

"So what do we do to help him?"

Lydia focused back on the werewolf. "Scott? Scott, do you hear me? You have to try to focus!"

"You hear that?" Malia questioned, walking to the door.

"Thunder?" Lydia and Tessa wondered.

Scott continued zoning and Tessa sighed. "Lydia, this isn't working."

Malia paced the floor. "Then we have to figure something else out."

"I know," Lydia snapped. "I-I know."

"Is he gonna freeze to death?"

"If his memories don't kill him."

"There has to be another way to do this. Isn't there?"

"I don't know. This is my first attempt at trying to open a dimensional rift in space-time. So I'm kind of fumbling in the dark, okay?"

Malia nodded. "I'm getting him out." She made a move towards Scott and the demigoddess grabbed her arm.

Tessa glanced at her friend. "Lydia, you aren't the only one."

"What?"

Lydia's eyes widened as Tessa continued. "You're not the only one fumbling in the dark."

"What does that mean?" Malia wondered.

"I think we have to treat this more like actual hypnosis," Lydia said. "They use images to guide you through memories. Like, a stairwell. The steps take you down through one year of your life to the next. That's how they regress you back."

Malia took a moment to think. "I get it. So he needs to imagine something. What do we tell him?"

An idea came to Tessa's mind. "School lockers."

Lydia nodded and walked up to the werewolf. "Scott? Can you hear me? Scott, listen. Imagine this. Imagine you're in the high school. Visualize yourself in the high school in the corridor where all the lockers are. That's where your memories are. They're in all the lockers. They're locked away behind each one. Every memory of Stiles is in a separate locker. Scott, you're there, in the high school. You're standing there now."

His eyes opened and he was more relaxed. "Lydia, I need your help. I don't think I can do this. I can't figure it out."

Lydia's brow furrowed. "Keep looking."

"There are memories, but I don't know which one's the right one. What am I supposed to do?"

"Find another memory. Just find another memory." Her gaze turned to the thermostat. "It's getting too cold. He's getting too cold."

Malia looked at Scott. "What if it's not enough to remember him? What if it's some kind of a connection he's supposed to make because of a memory?"