A/N: Due to the mature theme of the chapter, reader discretion is advised.
WOLFSBANE
[3×06]
THE SUN HAD SET BY THE TIME EVERYONE GOT OFF THE BUS TO STOP FOR THE NIGHT. They all looked out at their home for the night. An ancient looking, run-down motel.
"I've seen worse," Scott told them.
"Where have you seen worse?" Stiles asked him.
"Have you seen the inside of Hale House? I have lived in worse," Ayla informed him. Stiles sent her a look, but the she-wolf was just staring at the place with a look of disgust. They all knew she had hated living at Hale House last school year.
Coach blew his whistle, gaining everyone's attention. "Listen up. The meet's been pushed till tomorrow. This is the closest motel with the most vacancies and least amount of good judgment when it comes to accepting a bunch of degenerates like yourselves. You'll be pairing up. Choose wisely," he told them, holding out the room keys.
Ayla turned to Piper, knowing that Allison and Lydia would most likely pair up. The couple hadn't hardly spoken to each other since their earlier conversation, and Ayla wasn't so sure if Piper would actually want to room with her after it. But the brunette just sighed. "Go get the key," she told her. Ayla grinned and grabbed a room key from Finstock.
"And I'll have no sexual perversions perpetrated by you little deviants," he told everyone as all the teenagers headed off to their rooms.
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Both girls dropped their bags as they entered their room. Piper headed into the bathroom, while Ayla walked over to one of the beds. She pulled back the sheets, and was extremely relieved when nothing came scuttling out. She put the comforter and sheets back, before flopping back on top of them.
Piper walked out of the bathroom and turned to her girlfriend. "There's a dead cockroach in the shower," she told her.
"There's none in the bed," Ayla told her. She frowned as her werewolf hearing worked a little too well for her liking. "In this one at least," she added, looking at the other bed in disgust.
Piper groaned and walked over to the bed her girlfriend was laying on. She laid down next to her, both staring up at the ceiling.
"Am I a horrible person?" Ayla wondered after a moment.
"What? For having feelings like everyone else on the planet?" Piper asked, turning her head to send the other girl a look. "You didn't actually think we were going to be the old cat ladies we planned to be, did you?"
Ayla grinned. "I never agreed to the cats," she reminded.
"If we ever get married, we are getting a cat!" Piper argued.
"It will hate me," Ayla snapped.
"You do not know that," Piper told her. Both laughed at themselves.
"Do you still have that notebook?" Ayla wondered.
"You mean the one that we planned out our whole lives in when we were thirteen? How could I ever get rid of that?" Piper asked, making her girlfriend chuckle. After a second, Ayla released a sigh, staring up at the ceiling. Piper nudged her shoulder, making her turn towards her. "Dude, we were thirteen. We knew it was never going to go as planned," she reminded.
Ayla shook her head. "Why do you have to be you?" she wondered.
Piper smiled at her. The two looked at each other and despite the fact that both knew how this was eventually going to end, Ayla leaned forward to kiss her and Piper kissed her back. Ayla moved so she was hovering over the other girl, one hand cupping her cheek as the other supported her. She felt Piper slide her hands underneath her shirt.
And then Ayla felt her control beginning to slip away. She pulled back and felt Piper move her lips to her neck. She looked down at her hand that was on the bed, finding claws. She quickly tried to roll away from the other girl, but unfortunately rolled off the bed. "Ow!" she exclaimed as she hit the ground. Piper sat up, looking down at her in concern. Ayla looked more disgusted than hurt, however. "Ew," she said as she looked at the floor.
Piper couldn't hold back her laugh. "Are you okay? What happened?" she wondered.
Ayla shook her head, standing up from the floor. "I don't know. I'm just... feeling off I guess," she told her. The claws had disappeared when she hit the floor, but she still just felt strange.
Piper nodded, frowning in concern. "Okay. Well, I'm starving. So you want anything from the vending machine?" she wondered.
Ayla shrugged, not very hungry. "You know what I like. Just get me whatever," she told her, sitting back down.
"Alright," Piper agreed. She looked at the other girl one more time, before standing up and leaving the room.
Ayla sighed once she was gone, rubbing her eyes. It had been a while since she had shifted by accident, and she didn't get why she was now.
She stood up and walked over to her bag. She pulled out her sketch book and a pencil. She knew it was probably pointless with how she was currently feeling, but she thought she might as well see if she could get a vision. She needed to try to clear her head anyway.
She held the book in both hands and closed her eyes. She took in a deep breath as she tried to focus and let herself fall into one of her visions.
And then she did and she immediately wanted out of it. She saw a crying Isaac cowering in a tight space, Boyd drowning, and then Scott.
Her sketch book and pencil fell to the floor as she snapped out of it. Ayla gasped, her eyes shooting open. "No, no, no," she mumbled
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Walking over to the vending machine, Piper frowned as she noticed the glass broken in. "Okay, then," she muttered. If the last person hadn't paid, she certainly wasn't going to. She carefully reached through the broken glass and began grabbing some snacks.
She had gotten a few things out, before she got her arm on the glass. She gasped, rushing to pull her arm out. The movement only served to make an even larger cut on her arm. She swore under her breath as she watched blood run down her forearm. She was sure to be scolded by Ayla the second she got back to the room.
She looked at all the snacks she had grabbed, realizing she probably should've grabbed a bag. She sighed and walked up towards the front desk, hoping that just maybe this place might have firstaid. Otherwise she was going to have to wait on Ayla to run around each room, because Lord knew what would get in the cut in this place.
She made her way up to the front desk and dropped all her snacks on the counter. She then looked around, only to find a clerk nowhere in sight. She glanced around her, hating being out her alone. "This isn't a horror movie, Piper. Pull your big girl panties up," she muttered to herself, before turning back to the desk. She jumped when Boyd walked past her holding a safe. "What are you doing?" she wondered. She didn't receive a response, so she just turned back to the desk, shaking her head.
The sign displayed read, "Back at six a.m."
"You've got to be kidding me," she muttered. She then looked past the sign, reading the number on the nearby wall. "Two hundred and two." She frowned, unsure of what that meant. Her guess was that it was the months since this place last had an inspection.
She sighed, and started to gather up her snacks. She left them for a moment when she heard voices nearby. She walked into the courtyard, finding Stiles and Lydia.
The strawberry blonde was knelt down on the ground, next to a grate. She looked like she was listening to something coming from it, but Piper couldn't hear anything. Lydia suddenly stood up. "Someone's drowning!" she declared.
"What?" Piper asked in confusion.
"Someone's drowning!" Lydia yelled again, before rushing towards the stairs. Stiles followed behind.
"You don't want to get involved," Piper reminded herself, before sighing. She followed after them.
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The three teenagers checked Isaac and Boyd's room first, running inside. The main room appeared to be empty, but they were able to find Boyd in the bathroom. He was laying under the water in the tub, a safe against his chest. Stiles sat down on the floor and reached into the water to try to open the drain.
"He blocked it. He blocked the drain with something. I can't get to it," he told them.
"What do we do?" Lydia wondered.
"Here, help me," Stiles told them. All three tried to lift the safe off of the werewolf together to no success.
"Is he dead? How long can werewolves stay under water?" Lydia asked the other two.
"You think I know that?" Stiles questioned, before turning to Piper. "Do you know that?"
"I never exactly thought to find out using my girlfriend as a test subject," she snapped.
Stiles sighed and released the safe. He stood up, backing up into the wall. He hit the heater in the process and hissed in pain. He then looked between it and Boyd. "Wait a sec, the heater. Heat- Ethan came out of it when he touched the heater," Stiles told them.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Piper told him.
Stiles sighed. "It's heat, heat, fire. Heat does it, all right? We need something- we need fire," he explained.
"He's underwater," Lydia reminded.
"Yeah, I'm aware of that," he said.
"Wait, wait. The bus. On the bus, they'll have emergency road flares. They have their own oxidizers. They can burn underwater," Lydia informed them.
"Are you serious?" Stiles asked.
"Yes, go!" Lydia yelled.
Stiles ran out of the room. Both girls grabbed the safe and tried to lift it for a moment, before they gave up again. They stood up from the bathroom floor, moving into the bedroom as they waited. That was when they heard crying. Piper frowned, glancing around at the empty room. "You hear that too?" Lydia asked asked her. The brunette nodded.
Both exchanged a look, before looking down at the bed. The noise was coming from it. Both of them sat down on the floor, looking under the bed. Both gasped and backed away as they found a crying Isaac hiding below. "Oh, this has to be some horror movie shit," Piper muttered.
She almost screamed as she felt something touch her shoulder, only to turn and realize it was Stiles. He held up the flares. "I got 'em," he told them. He then looked at the two flares in confusion. "What do I do? How do I do this?"
"The cap. It's like a match. The cap's a match," Lydia explained.
Stiles took off the cap and began trying to light it. "Stiles, people are dying!" Piper reminded when it took him a moment.
"Yeah, I know. I'm trying," he snapped. The flare finally lit and Stiles ran into the bathroom. He stuck it under the water and burned Boyd's shoulder with it. The idea apparently worked because he had to stumble backwards to avoid being hit by the safe. Boyd sat up in the water, his face transformed as he growled.
Piper sighed in relief, before turning go the two teenagers standing next to her. "Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on?" she asked.
"Uh, all the werewolves are apparently trying to kill themselves," Stiles told her.
"What? Why would they do that?" she wondered.
"Because this hotel is haunted," Lydia guessed.
"We don't actually know," Stiles told her.
Piper frowned as his words hit her. "Oh, no. Ayla," she realized, running out of the room.
"Isaac's under the bed," Lydia told Stiles, before chasing Piper out of the room.
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Both Lydia and Piper went running into the brunette's room to find Ayla holding a knife close to her throat. "Stop!" Lydia yelled at her best friend.
Her and Piper froze as they stared at the she-wolf. She had tears on her face, and a small trickle of blood running down her neck where she had pressed the knife in. Neither wanted to move forward and risk her actually hurting herself.
"Ayla? Honey, where'd you get the knife?" Piper asked, trying to keep her voice from shaking.
"It's one of Allison's," Lydia realized. "I saw it in her bag."
Piper stepped towards her girlfriend, only to stop when more blood ran down Ayla's throat. "Hey. Hey, it's okay. Just please hand me the knife," Piper pleaded. Ayla shook her head.
"Ayla, just tell us what's going on," Lydia told her.
"It's all my fault," Ayla mumbled.
"What?" Piper wondered.
"Everyone around me keeps getting hurt," Ayla told her.
"What?" Piper asked, not sure what she was talking about.
"Her family. She's told me before about blaming herself for the fire and her mom's death. She thinks she should've seen what happened," Lydia explained to her.
Piper sighed. "Ayla, you were a kid. You couldn't have done anything about the fire. And you couldn't have done anything about your mom either, okay?" she asked.
"And everything that's happened since then? I left for months, and it almost got Isaac, Boyd and Cora killed. It did get Erica killed," Ayla told her.
Piper carefully stepped towards her again. "And that wasn't on you, either. You lost your mom. It is okay that you needed to take a break," Piper told her.
"How is abandoning them okay?" Ayla wondered.
"You didn't abandon them. Ayla, you're pretty much incapable of abandoning people," Piper told her.
"But I left them," Ayla reminded.
"For two months," Piper snapped. She took a breath, trying to stay calm.
"Yeah, and I came back and Derek still ended up dead. Everyone's ending up hurt," Ayla told her.
Piper sighed. "Look, I have no idea what everything has been like for you, and I'm not gonna pretend to. But you know what I do know?" she asked, inching closer to the other girl as she spoke. "I know that I probably wouldn't have made it through freshman year without you, and you had already kept me alive for two years by then. I know that I was a bitch to you sophomore year, because you were the only one I could take it all out on. I know that I hated it when you finally gave up and left, and that I came all the way to that damn town because you're the only family I have. So, please, please just give me the knife."
She had managed to get only a few feet from the other girl as she spoke. She carefully reached towards Ayla's hand that she held the knife in. When the she-wolf didn't press it in any further, Piper used one hand to grab her wrist, and the other to grab the lighter in her pocket. She quickly flicked it open, and put the flame against Ayla's hand.
The Hale gasped, dropping the knife to the ground as her girlfriend burned her hand. Both her and Piper lurched back to avoid the knife hitting either of them in the feet. Ayla looked around in confusion. "What the hell?" she asked.
Piper didn't reply, instead throwing her arms around her and sobbing. Ayla quickly wrapped her arms around her. "I'm... it's okay," she managed as she held her.
Ayla looked at Lydia, who also had tears in her eyes. "What just happened to me? I- I was over that. I- I tried to deal with all that this summer. I don't- I don't know..."
Lydia shook her head. "It's all of you. We don't know what's going on," she told her.
Ayla's eyes widened as she remembered the vision she had had just before all of this. "Oh, my God. Scott," she realized.
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"I can't find Scott anywhere," Allison informed the other four teenagers as they walked down stairs.
"It's happening to him to, isn't it?" Stiles asked.
"It is. I saw it," Ayla told them.
"Didn't you say there was another flare on the bus?" Lydia asked Stiles.
"Yeah, I'll get it," he told her.
All five reached the bottom of the stairs and stopped. They had finally found the werewolf, standing a few feet away. He was holding the lit flare and was completely drenched in what Ayla's werewolf sense of smell was telling her was gasoline.
"Scott," Allison called, the first to speak. All of them walked around so that they were facing him, avoiding stepping in the puddle he was standing in. They could all now see the empty gas tank sitting on the ground.
"Scott?" Ayla asked, trying her hardest to keep her voice even.
"There's no hope," he told them.
"What do you mean, Scott? There's always hope," Allison told him.
"Not for me. Not for Derek," Scott disagreed.
"Derek wasn't your fault. You know Derek wasn't your fault," Allison told him.
"Every time I try to fight back, it just gets worse. People keep getting hurt. People keep getting killed," Scott told her.
Ayla shook her head, finally taking a step forward. "And that is not your fault, okay? It's horrible and it sucks, but people like us get hurt and sometimes we can't do anything to stop it. Trust me, I've spent the last year having to accept that," she told him.
Stiles moved forward to stand next to her. "Scott, listen to me, okay? This isn't you, all right? This is someone inside your head telling you to do this. Okay?" he asked.
"What if it isn't? What if it is just me? What if doing this is actually the best thing that I could do for everyone else?" Scott wondered. Tears filled Ayla's eyes as she listened to him. "It all started that night, the night I got bitten. You remember the way it was before that? You and me, we were- we were- we were nothing. We weren't popular. We weren't good at lacrosse. We weren't important. We were no one. Maybe I should just be no one again. No one at all." He held out the flare, and Stiles stepped forward again.
"Scott, just listen to me, okay? You're not no one. Okay? You're someone, you're- Scott, you're my best friend," Stiles told him, tears falling down his cheeks. "Okay? I need you. Scott, you're my brother." He looked down at the puddle of gasoline around the werewolf, before stepping into it. "All right? So- so if you're gonna do this, then, I think you're just gonna have to take me with you. All right?" Stiles asked.
Scott didn't respond. He just stood there, crying, as Stiles carefully took the flare from his hand. He tossed it to the side, letting it land just beyond the puddle. Unfortunately, the wind was going in the direction of the puddle. The flare rolled forward towards the gasoline.
"No!" Lydia yelled, alerting everyone of the immediate danger. All of them ran, collapsing in a heap together just out of reach of the erupting flames.
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The whole group of teenagers along with Boyd and Isaac ended up sleeping on the bus that night. They didn't know what had made all the werewolves hallucinate, but they weren't sticking around to find out. Boyd and Isaac were at the back of the bus, spread out across opposite seats. The others were closer to the front. Lydia and Allison were sat together across the aisle from Stiles. Scott was in front of his best friend, just behind Ayla who was curled up contently against Piper's side.
The bus doors suddenly opened, awaking the teenagers. Coach walked in and looked around at them. "I don't even want to know. I really don't want to know," he told them. Everyone sat up, all of them in slight pain due to sleeping on the bus. "But in case you missed the announcement, the meet's cancelled, so we're heading home. Pack it in."
Students began entering the bus, and they all watched in surprise as Ethan took a seat next to Scott. Ayla twisted in her seat to look at the alpha.
"I don't know what happened last night, but I'm pretty sure you saved my life," Ethan told the beta next to him.
"Actually, I saved your life, but not that it matters that much. It's just- it's a minor detail," Stiles told him.
Both betas sent him a look, but Ethan just ignored him and turned back to Scott and Ayla. "So I'm gonna give you both something. We're pretty sure Derek's still alive," he told them. The two betas exchanged a look, and Ayla actually managed a smile. "But he killed one of ours. That means one of two things can happen. Either he joins our pack..."
"And kills his own," Scott realized.
"Or Kali goes after him, and we kill him. That's the way it works," Ethan warned.
"You know, your little code of ethics there is sort of barbaric, just F.Y.I," Stiles informed the alpha. Ethan just walked away to join Danny. Stiles stole his seat as soon as he was gone.
Ayla looked out her window, frowning. "Why do you look more upset than you did when you still fully believed Derek was dead?" Scott asked her.
She shook her head. "Because it can't be this simple," she told him.
"What's simple about what he just told us?" Scott wondered.
Ayla sighed. "This pack has been around since before the fire. There's a reason that Ethan and Aiden are their only new recruits. They're smart about who they take. Which is why I don't get why they would take Derek," she explained.
Scott shrugged. "He's an alpha from a powerful family," he guessed.
"But our family hasn't been powerful since the fire. I just feel like there has to be more," Ayla told him. Both frowned at the thought, before their attention was stolen by Lydia.
The strawberry blonde had just sat down in the seats across from Scott and Stiles. She blew into what Ayla assumed was Coach's whistle, covering it with her hand. She then held up her hand to show them the purplish dust coating her palm. "Wolfsbane," she said.
"So every time that Coach blew the whistle on the bus, Scott, Ayla, Isaac, Boyd and Ethan-"
"We all inhaled it," Scott finished for his best friend.
"You were all poisoned by it," Allison realized.
"So that's how the darach got in their heads. That's how he did it," Stiles told them. He then grabbed the whistle from Lydia's hand and began trying to open the window. Scott had to duck out of the way as Stiles rushed to open the window and toss the whistle out of it.
"Stilinski!" Coach Finstock cried as he saw his whistle go flying out of the bus. But then they were moving and there was no getting it back.
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The she-wolf eventually moved to the back of the bus to sit with her girlfriend. She had Piper's head on her shoulder as both sat in silence, just happy to be headed home with everyone in one piece. Ayla placed a kiss on the other girl's head, and Piper smiled. "Hi, wolfie," she mumbled.
Ayla smiled at the nickname. She sighed as she thought about the night before. "I- I meant everything I said. I still feel like I should've been able to change things. That all that blood is on my hands," she admitted.
Piper sat up, looking at her. She shook her head. "You can't put all that on yourself," she told her.
Ayla nodded. "I know. And on my good days, I remember that there's nothing I can do to change it. But on my bad ones that's how I feel, and I don't know if that'll ever change," she explained. She felt Piper squeeze her hand and sighed.
"You were a bitch, by the way," Ayla informed her. Both released a laugh, though they were almost in tears. "I knew it wasn't about me, though," Ayla assured her, looking at the other girl. Piper didn't meet her eyes, not wanting her to see the tears in hers. "You think I didn't know what was going on? I am a master at redirecting all my anger at a different source. I knew what was going on, Pipe. I let you get mad at me for the smallest things because I felt like I was helping. And I only left when I couldn't take you pushing me away any more."
"I shouldn't have done that to you, though," Piper told her.
"I shouldn't have let you. But I loved you. I still love you," Ayla informed her.
Piper finally looked at her. "I love you too," she mumbled, wiping at her eyes.
"And I know that you have tried since coming back, and I'm sorry I suck. But can you promise me one thing?" Ayla asked her.
"What?" Piper wondered.
"Promise me that whatever happens, we're still gonna be each other's family. You've been my best friend since I was thirteen. I don't want to lose you completely over something stupid," Ayla told her.
Piper looked at her. She knew what she was asking. She was asking her to still stick with her even if she chose Scott. And the thought only served to make her want to cry even more. She just nodded, though. "I promise."
Ayla looked at her, biting the inside of her lip. She didn't get to say anything more before Lydia turned around in her seat to look at the two.
"Hey, I was wondering something," the strawberry blonde told them, before turning to Piper. "Why'd you even have a lighter on you?"
Allison's head popped up above the seat as she moved to join the conversation. All of them looked at the brunette sat next to the she-wolf as she tried to come up with an acceptable answer. "Umm, well, I..."
"Oh, my God. I knew it!" Ayla exclaimed. The she-wolf hadn't even thought to ask after everything that had happened, but it made sense now that she thought about it.
"Knew what?" Lydia wondered.
"I knew I smelled something in your bag," Ayla told her girlfriend.
"You and your bloodhound nose smelled nothing," Piper snapped.
"You acted like I was crazy, when I knew," Ayla snapped.
"Look, after how stressful this little adventure has been, I don't see anything wrong with a little bit of stress relief," Piper tried to defend herself.
"Did you seriously bring cigarettes?" Allison wondered.
"Ew. Of course not. I brought weed," Piper replied.
The Argent scoffed. "Of course," she muttered.
"Hey, I am willing to share with anyone who does not rat me out to Finstock," Piper told them.
"No, thanks," Allison replied, frowning at the brunette.
"Probably won't work on me anyway," Ayla told her girlfriend.
Lydia frowned, prompting her huntress best friend to nudge her. "Lyds!" she exclaimed.
"Fine, I'm good too," the strawberry blonde decided, making her other friends laugh. And the four went on talking for the rest of the ride back, pretending this had been a normal trip and no one had almost died.
I'm not even gonna lie to you guys, I might've teared up a few times while writing this. I find the last scene hilarious, though, because that would so be several of my friends.
Also, I'm curious about how long you guys think Ayla and Piper will last? I'm not going to tell you, but I will say that both will be in a relationship in S3B, even if they're not together anymore.
And in case any of you guys are still confused, basically what happened with the breakup was that Piper was going through a rough period with her family and pushed Ayla away.
Anyway, please vote and comment! I love hearing all your thoughts.