So close!
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"You want to bite Stiles?" Lydia repeated.
Lydia, Scott, Malia, Liam, Isaac and I all stood in the Sheriff's station. We had just run over everything that we had all learnt. Apparently, Scott, Liam and the rest of their group had managed to catch a Ghost Rider.
However, the creature had ended up dead, having a bite taken out of the back of its head by Mr Douglas, the most recent hire at Beacon Hills High School.
The attack on the Ghost Rider was what had kept Peter from getting taken again also, so he was back with us. How long for though, I couldn't say.
"To get him through the rift," Scott confirmed.
Peter gave a doubtful smile as he looked at the boy, "Just to clarify, are you planning on biting everyone in the train station?"
I wasn't about to agree with Peter out loud, but he did have a point.
"With Stiles back, he'll be able to help us figure out a plan," Scott explained.
Isaac nodded, "He was good at that sort of thing."
Peter almost laughed as he faced them. "So the plan is to get Stiles to come up with a plan."
"You can shut up now," Malia said bitterly.
"Malia, look around. We're the only ones left in Beacon Hills. If they take us, Lydia will be the only one left to haunt the place."
"We're not going to let that happen," I said immediately, not wanting the girl to ever believe that we would abandon her.
"And that's why I'm the only person going in," Scott informed the man. "Liam and Hayden will stay here with Mason. As long as somebody is left in Beacon Hills, the Wild Hunt can't move on."
"I like your plan, Scott, I really do, especially the part about turning Stiles," Peter claimed. "But it can't work."
"Who says?" I asked.
"Logic," he scoffed. "Life experience. Liam, what are the odds that he'll get taken? What id Stiles isn't there? What if there's no Beacon Hills for you to come back to?"
"You got a better idea?" Liam countered.
"Yeah. It's called 'run like hell,'" he told us. "So, leave in five."
I shook my head as I looked at him, "How many times do I need to say that we're not just going to give up on him?"
"You promised you'd help us," Malia reminded him. "We still need to find the rift."
The man lolled his head to the side, seeming genuinely concerned. "I didn't promise I'd help you commit suicide."
"If you can't help, we can find it ourselves," Scott told him, not in the mood for Peter and his negativity.
"Scott, I admit that you have a flair for beating the odds. But, this? You don't walk away from. You run."
We all watched as Peter walked out the door, Malia and I standing side-by-side. It didn't take a genius to know we were disappointed.
Part of us was hoping that he would actually end up helping. And yes, it was Peter Hale, but he was also our father, and I thought that that might have counted for something.
"Coward," Isaac muttered, shaking his head as he turned back to the Pack.
♧♤♢♡
After finalising the plan, Malia and I returned to the Preserve with our friends in tow. Hayden, Liam and Mason were going to watch Theo, while the rest of us searched for the rift.
"When you guys were here before, how long until the Ghost Riders showed up?" Scott asked.
"A couple of minutes," Malia answered
"Okay, I just want to go on the record saying this plan is crazy," Isaac said as we walked. "What is this thing supposed to look like?"
Lydia thought for a moment before responding, "If it's a tear in the fabric of our world. Theoretically, it could look like anything from a microscopic black hole to a free-floating Einstein-Rosen bridge."
"So, we don't know what we're looking for," Isaac concluded, nodding his head slowly, before looking up. "As long as it's not up there, I guess."
"Let's split up," Scott suggested.
We had barely walked a couple of metres away from each other when Scott was calling us back over. He found a sewerage pipe that's grate was broken and the bars bent.
The alpha knelt, picking up a couple of leaves that looked awfully similar to the ones the Ghost Riders constantly left behind.
"The rift's not above us," Lydia thought allowed.
My eyes drifted now to my feet as I almost gasped, "It's below."
We all took turns climbing into the pipe and taking the ladder down to the mainline. Since we hadn't planned on going underground or anywhere dark we hadn't brought any torches with us, so we all had our phones out with the flashlights on.
"I can't see a thing," Lydia sighed as we walked.
"It's got to be down here somewhere," Scott said, taking the lead.
We began to walk through the tunnel, searching for anything that seemed out of place. When we came to a split in the path, we broke into two groups.
Walking forward, suddenly Malia was thrown back by something we couldn't see. She was thrown right into Isaac, both of them falling to the ground.
"Found it!" Malia shouted as she climbed to her feet, giving Isaac a hand also.
"It's remarkably similar," Lydia stated as she approached what Malia had run into.
Now that we knew it was there, it was hard to miss. It was like warbling green glass, shifting in the air.
"To what?" Malia asked.
"To the Einstein-Rosen bridge."
Malia picked up a broken pipe, before trying to ram it through the rift. All it did was begin to melt the pipe. We had finally found it, but now we had no idea what to do with it.
"There's gotta be another way. We just need to think."
"Think?" Malia asked.
Scott nodded, "Yeah, think about how to get through a supernatural rift that melts steel."
Isaac pursed his lips, nodding his head slowly. "Sure. Sounds simple enough."
"No one said it was going to be easy," I pointed out, not taking my eyes off of the rift.
"But it doesn't have to be so hard," a voice told us.
We all turned around, to see a man approaching us. I had never been introduced or had one of his classes, but I had seen him around school - it was Mr Douglas.
"He followed our scent," Scott said.
"I followed your desperation," the man corrected. "We're all in a tough spot. Desperate to get inside and save everyone, and hoping to find a way to stop this army of the dead. We all want the same thing."
"He had a point," Lydia said, not sounding happy about it at all.
Malia, on the other hand, wasn't as willing to believe him. "If he doesn't kill anyone."
"Else," Scott tacked on. "If he doesn't kill anyone else."
Mr Douglas didn't deny it, just shrugged. "All that matters right now is getting through the rift."
"Well, you're going to be disappointed," Isaac told the man. "It burns whatever tries to get through. It just melted a pipe."
"Perhaps not everything."
Before we could ask what he was referring to, someone came walking up behind him. Squinting in the dark, I realised who it was.
"Parrish? What are you doing here?"
He didn't respond, and as he got closer, I could see his eyes were glowing green instead of orange, and his fangs were bared. He looked across at us all, growling.
"Jordan," Lydia said calmly, trying to get through to him.
"The Hellhound can open the rift, we all go together," Mr Douglas stated.
"You're the bad guy," Malia reminded him. "I'm pretty sure helping you is a bad idea."
"Good guy. Bad guy. When has anything ever been so black and white?"
"World War II," Liam said as he arrived, panting and out of breath. "He's a Nazi. He wants the Hunt for himself. He wants his own supernatural army."
Mr Douglas sighed in disappointment, before uncoiling the whip in his hand. He sized us all up, the smirk not leaving his face.
"We're not letting you through that rift," Scott told the man.
"'Not letting' me?" Mr Douglas asked, practically scoffing. "I see. You still think you have a say in the matter."
The man then cracked the whip, barely missing us. Scott immediately went into Alpha mode, eyes turning blood red as he roared at the man.
Mr Douglas continued to crack the whip, getting closer each time. Scott didn't back down though, continuing to growl. Liam had grabbed Lydia, dragging her out of the way. Isaac seemed to think this was a good idea, leading me over to them also, Malia close behind.
"We have to help him," I said.
"How?" Isaac asked.
A few more whips later, and Scott realised he was getting too close to touching the rift. He jumped out of the way and Mr Douglas ceased cracking the whip.
"Hollenhund," he said, calling upon Parrish.
Fire began to trail along Parrish's skin, leaving cracks in their wake as he approached the rift. He reached forward and dug his hands into the barrier, beginning to rip it open.
"Parrish stop!" Scott pleaded, but it was useless.
Parrish continued under the influence of Mr Douglas, grunting as he used all of his strength. There was a strange sound, and then Parrish stopped.
Scott went to go towards it, but I grabbed his arm and made him wait.
"Wunderbar," Mr Douglas said as he examined the rift. Parrish roared at us, warning us to keep back.
"Hollenhund."
Parrish stood down, beginning to follow Mr Douglas through the hole in the rift.
"Now!" Malia said.
We all ran out, sprinting towards the rift. Just as we went to follow, it closed over once more, stopping us in our tracks.
My hands reached my hair as I shook my head. "We were almost there!" I shouted angrily.
But I didn't have time to complain any further as two Ghost Riders stepped out of the rift. We all fell silent, walking backwards slowly, trying not to draw the attention of the Riders.
It was too late though, they had come out here for us. Scott had his arms out slightly as if he thought he would be able to protect all of us.
"Liam, you and Lydia get to the bunker."
My eyes began to glow silver as the Ghost Riders approached when I felt Isaac drag me back. "Go with Lydia and Liam."
"What? Why?" I asked quickly.
"We can handle these guys between the three of us. Go with them in case more Ghost Riders show up."
I hesitated but understood the point he was trying to make. I nodded, before running through the tunnels after the two. It didn't take me long to catch up with them, the three of us running alongside each other towards Argent's bunker.
A roar echoed through the tunnels, catching our attention.
"That roar wasn't promising," Liam said, voicing what we were all thinking.
Lydia got him to keep moving. "Well, they rarely are. Keep going. Keep going."
We were a few turns away from the bunker, when we skidded to a stop, coming face-to-face with a Ghost Rider who was pointing its gun at us.
My eyes glowed silver as I gathered power, prepared to fight it off. Lydia held a hand out though, getting me to stay still.
I went to ask her why, when I noticed the Ghost Rider put the safety back on his gun, before raising it.
"What's happening?" Liam asked, confused by the scene before us.
"I don't know," Lydia said. "But stay behind me. Follow me."
The Ghost Rider lowered its gun completely but didn't move. We slowly began to walk so that we could get past it. A ghostly snarl escaped it as we did so, but it still did not attempt to attack us.
Once we were clear of it, we all realised what was going on.
"Lydia," I said quietly. "It's afraid of you."
The strawberry blonde's eyes didn't leave the Ghost Rider as she mumbled, "I'm afraid of me."
♧♤♢♡
'We're sorry. The number you have reached is not in service. Please check the number or try to call again. This is a recording.'
The phone beeped as Scott hit redial, trying his mum again. He sat at his kitchen table, staring blankly at the device. She had been taken by the Wild Hunt.
"Scott," Malia said, leaning against the fridge. When the boy didn't respond, she walked over to the table and sat beside him.
"Scott, your mum is gone. But she's still alive."
She then reached over and locked his phone so that he couldn't hit redial for the fifth time. From what we could tell, those of us in this room were the last of Beacon Hills remaining.
It was just me, Lydia, Scott, Malia, Isaac, Liam and Iris. Iris had met up with my sister during the afternoon, but Ghost Riders had come and wiped out the building. Iris barely managed to get away.
Peter was gone again, too. Apparently, the roar we'd heard in the tunnels had been him saving Malia, Scott and Isaac from the Ghost Riders who had been trying to kill them
"What do we do now?" Liam asked.
Iris was leaning against the bench, eyes flitting in thought. "I've never seen anything like this before. We can't hide from them. And they're stronger than us."
"What about Lydia? The Ghost Rider was afraid of her."
I put an arm around Lydia, the girl still looking dazed from our encounter with the Rider. Being a Banshee was hard enough, and having the looking thought of being left here alone wasn't helping her mental state.
"It wasn't fear," Lydia corrected as we came over to sit around the table. "It's. . . almost like reverence."
"Doesn't matter," Scott told her. "The rift is gone. We're the only ones left in Beacon Hills."
"So we're just going to give up?" I asked the hope I'd finally found beginning to drown in everyone's words.
Isaac turned to me, a sad look on his face. "What else is there to do, Ri?"
We all fell into silence, realising he might have been right. We had never felt so defeated.
A soft knock at the door made us all lookup. We weren't the only ones left in Beacon Hills.
The door opened, to reveal the Sheriff.
He closed the door behind him, walking over to the table and looking at us all.
"I have a son," he stated. "His name is Mieczysław Stilinski. But we call him Stiles. I remember."
Mieczysław Stilinski.
"I'm glad you're finally getting the pronunciation right," the boy laughed in the back of my memories.
"We were, like, eight. You couldn't even pronounce it!" I had said back.
I felt my hope begin to return as the Sheriff spoke, holding my breath to make sure I didn't miss a single word.
"When Stiles was a little kid, he couldn't say his first name. Not sure why. It pretty much rolls off the tongue," he said with a small smile. "But, uh, the closest he could get was 'mischief.' His mother called him that until. . ."
He stopped, taking a heavy breath, before continuing. "I remember when, uh. . . when Stiles first got his Jeep. It belonged to his mother. She wanted him to have it. The first time when he took a spin behind the wheel, he went straight into a ditch. I gave him his first roll of duct tape that day. He was always getting into trouble. But he always had a good heart. Always.
"We're here tonight because my goofball son decided to drag Scott and Riley, his greatest friends in the world, into the woods to see a dead body."
Scott and I made eye contact, and I could feel myself smiling. I wiped away my tears as I reached over and grabbed his hand.
"How did you remember?" Scott asked the man.
"It started with Stiles' jersey," he said, smiling directly at me. "Then I found the red string for his crime board. Finally, his whole room came back and all the memories. And then the strangest thing happened."
"What?" Isaac asked, as intrigued as the rest of us.
"I thought I saw him. It's like, something opened right there in the middle of the room. Just for a moment. And then it was gone."
And right then, I could have sworn my heart stopped. "A rift," I thought aloud.
"I thought you guys told me there was only one rift?" Iris inquired.
Malia nodded, "There was. We saw it disappear."
Scott thought for a moment, pointing a finger to the Sheriff, beginning to put the pieces together. "You remembered Stiles and then a new rift was created."
"If the Sheriff can do it. . ."
"Then we can, too," I completed.
"But that rift closed," Liam said, reminding us of the Sheriff's words.
"Then we'll open it again," the Alpha responded.
The Sheriff leaned down, confused, "How?"
"By remembering Stiles."
I nodded, squeezing the boy's hand. "We have to find a way to remember everything.
♧♤♢♡
It didn't take long for Lydia to come up with an idea. Which led to why Lydia, Malia, Scott, Isaac and I were down in Argent's bunker.
Scott pushed the door handle down, locking it. It wasn't exactly much, but it was all the door had.
"Think it'll hold them off?" Malia asked, referring to the Ghost Riders.
"Probably not," Scott shrugged.
"Definitely not," Lydia corrected.
Isaac scoffed, "And you guys say I'm a pessimist."
We all walked further into the bunker until we were standing in front of a machine that was oddly shaped like a coffin. It didn't exactly give me feel all that optimistic.
"So, how cold does this thing get?" Scott asked Lydia since it was her idea.
The girl looked at him, "Cold enough for a Hellhound. It's not the same as the ice bath you gave Isaac-"
"An unpleasant experience, I might add" the beta chipped in.
"But it can lower your core temperature anything a human can survive."
"So what does freezing our asses off have to do with our memories?" Malia asked.
"It'll slow your heart rate, and put you in a trance-like state."
"Like hypnosis," Scott clarified, to which Lydia nodded, looking to the machine to figure out how to get it to work.
Malia pointed to a green button, shrugging. "This says 'start,' so, maybe it's not that complicated."
"Something tells me otherwise," Isaac sighed, gesturing to the other side of the machine that housed more buttons, knobs, switches and dials that we didn't know how to work.
"So, optimistically, how much time do you think we need to do this?"
"As much as Liam, Iris and Stilinski can buy us," Scott told her, opening the door to the freezing chamber.
As Scott removed his shirt, Malia pressed the 'start' button. We waited until the machine finally began to do something. When it did, Malia asked Scott if he was ready.
Once he was inside, Isaac latched the door shut so that the cold air couldn't escape. Scott looked nervous, but there was determination there also.
"Remember," Lydia said as she looked at him through the pane of glass on the front of the door. "This will get cold enough to kill you. So if something feels wrong or like, it's not working-"
"It's going to work," Scott cut in from the other side of the door.
"I hope you're not saying that because you think I know what I'm doing."
"I'm saying that because I know you can figure it out."
Lydia began to turn some dials, and we could all see the cold air beginning to spill into the chamber. The glass was already starting to fog up, only reiterating how cold it was in there.
Scott wrapped his arms across his chest as he tried to retain his body heat. "Oh, okay, all right, yeah, that's cold. Really cold."
"So what are we supposed to do? Talk to him? Help him remember? Wait till he turns into a werewolf freezy pop?" Malia asked.
"Guide him," I answered, turning to Lydia. "Right? Help him find Stiles?"
"We need to keep him focused," Lydia nodded. She turned to the chamber, speaking directly to the Alpha. "Scott, you have to think about him. Concentrate on Stiles."
"Try to picture him in your head," I insisted. "What he looks like, what he sounds like, how it felt having him there."
The machine began to beep, to which Malia stated she no longer liked this idea.
"Something's wrong."
"Just. . . just hold on a moment," I asked softly, my eyes remaining on Scott.
The moment passed and Scott yelled, putting his hand on the glass. His eyes were squinted shut in pain as his head fell.
"I'm getting him out of there."
Out of instinct, I stepped in between Malia and the latches keeping the door shut. "Malia, please just wait."
We all looked into the chamber to see Scott lowering his hand, no longer freaking out. Lydia took the chance to speak to him again.
"Scott. . . can you hear me?"
When his eyes opened, they were red. His healing was kicking in, trying to save his life as the cold took over. He blinked a couple of times until his eyes faded back to brown.
"Scott, don't fall asleep. You have to keep your eyes open."
"I'm trying," he said weakly.
"It's not sleep," Lydia said slowly. "I think you're losing consciousness. And if you do that, I think we're gonna lose you."
"Scott, please stay awake," I pleaded, putting my hand on the freezing cold glass. "I can't lose you, too."
The boy's eyes widened, something catching his attention. He began to look around, searching for something.
"Scott. Try to find him," Lydia instructed. "Try to find him in your memories. Find him in any memory. Good or bad."
As Scott continued to look panicked, Malia turned to Lydia. "What's happening to him?"
"I don't know."
"He doesn't look good. He looks. . . lost."
"Maybe he is," Isaac said in thought.
"There's too much," I added. "We've known Stiles our whole lives, there would be so many memories."
Lydia tried to get him to focus again, but it wasn't working.
"You guys hear that?" Malia asked, walking over to the door.
"Thunder?" Lydia wondered.
"Maybe. We have to figure something out."
"I know."
Malia walked back over, looking at the machine. "Is he gonna freeze to death in there?"
Lydia wasn't about to lie, answering, "If his memories don't kill him."
"There has to be another way to do this. Isn't there?"
"I don't know," Lydia shrugged. "This is my first attempt at trying to open a dimensional rift in space-time. So I'm kind of fumbling around in the dark, okay?"
"So is Scott," Isaac told her. "When Deaton had me in the ice bath, he had to guide me through my memories so that it didn't overwhelm me. Scott doesn't have anyone guiding him, so he can't focus on what he needs to find."
Lydia's eyes widened in realisation. "You're right. I think we have to treat this more like actual hypnosis. 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."
"Okay," I nodded, glad to see we were getting somewhere. "So, what do we give Scott to imagine so that he can remember Stiles?"
Lydia thought for a moment, an idea coming to her as she faced the chamber.