038 | HOW VILLAINS ARE MADE
( how villains are made — madalen duke )
" so easily we're persuaded
when the lines are blurred and faded
no one ever starts that way
but this is how villains are made "
MANHATTAN,
NEW YORK
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if anyone remembers the chapter
'the rules of the nogitsunes' from book 2 which explained the japanese mythology behind okami and what was going on with aspen, this chapter is basically book 6's version of that
except it's explaining what's happened with allison, not aspen
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"DEATON, hey!" Aspen greeted the veterinarian with a warm hug and great smile, as he returned the hug and gave her a comforting pat on the back, "It's so good to see you, you didn't have to come all the way here!"
The veterinarian didn't appear to have changed physically much over the years, looking relatively the same as when he did when the pack was in high school.
Since figuring out a small piece of a much larger mind-fuck of a puzzle, Scott had given his old boss a call, and they were now gathered in Deaton's animal clinic that he had in the city.
Josephine was also with them, practically being initiated into the pack now that she was in just as much danger as the rest of them, and she had been enlightened on the secrets and realism of the supernatural world.
They all knew if anyone could help them truly get to the bottom of this all, it was Dr Alan Deaton.
"I was in Staten Island on business anyway," Deaton smiled, "And from what I heard over the phone with Scott... this couldn't exactly wait, could it?"
Deaton's eyes glanced around the room, meeting everybody's looks which had now solemner at the mention of the situation at hand. The veterinarian pursed his lips, nodding his head and leading them over to the table where he had some things laid out. They all circled around it, Aspen, Stiles, Scott, Malia, Kira, Isaac, and Josephine, waiting anxiously for what Deaton had hopefully discovered.
"Okay, so based off what you could tell me over the phone," Deaton began, "I managed to pull together a hypothesis or two."
"About how Allison's alive?" said Stiles, who was stood beside Aspen, "Or why she's... y'know..."
"Trying to kill me?" Aspen finished the sentence for him.
Deaton glanced between the recently-rekindled couple, "Both—but in order for me to explain the latter, I need you guys to think really hard about the former..."
Everyone exchanged narrow-eyed glances. They'd all been trying to figure out the answer to how Allison had been alive all this time for the past month— they'd came up empty.
"You mentioned on the phone that Allison's been watching Aspen, right?" said Deaton, "At least since you started college?"
Aspen swallowed a lump in her throat, clearing it as she nodded, "Yeah, that's right."
"So that would be at least ten years." Deaton explained, "She died at the hands of the Oni when you were all in your Junior year, which was twelve years ago. We need to pick apart what happened in those two years inbetween."
Everyone paused, all in thought as they reflected back to a time so long ago—but so traumatic that they'd never forget. Josephine was the only one who stood there cluelessly, growing uneasy as she exchanged a worrisome look with the veterinarian she'd just met.
"First semester of Junior Year was the alpha pack and the nogitsunes." Scott said his thoughts aloud, "Allison died that December."
"Second semester... the Deadpool." Malia spoke up, leaning her hands on the table they all circled around.
"And Kate and the Beserkers..." Kira said.
"And the Chaseusses." Aspen added, "who were related to Allison— if that means anything..."
"Kate managed to age Derek backwards and she was supposed to be dead herself," said Scott, elaborating on Kira's point, "it could be linked to that."
"It could..." Stiles said, deep in thought, "Kate was her aunt, after all— if she found a way to revive people, she'd definitely start with Allison."
"She used some magic in the cave underneath La Iglesia to age him back to a teenager," Aspen chimed in, "It wasn't like she brought anyone back from the dead."
"Yeah, except herself." Scott scoffed lowly.
"Okay, steer away from Kate." Deaton told them, "What about the deadpool?"
"Allison's name was one of the cipher keys." Aspen murmured under her breath, "Meaning she was still dead when the Deadpool was created..."
"So we can rule out that it had anything to do with Junior Year?" Isaac spoke up, looking around at them all.
"We're not exactly ruling anything out..." said Dr Deaton, "But perhaps we should steer away from those events if it seems unlikely. We need to find someone with motive and means to do this. You mentioned on the phone that Allison said something that indicated another person's involvement?"
"I told you to do me proud..." Aspen began to recite Allison's words by heart, that had been engraved in her brain like a tattoo since she heard them the night before. "Instead, you went and killed the person I have to thank for giving me my life back— a person I now owe."
"So it wasn't some fluke of nature that she was brought back," said Malia, "Someone actually did this to her."
"She'd probably argue someone did this for her— but yes." said Deaton.
Aspen fell silent in thought as the others began to murmur more thoughts and theories aloud.
Her eyes stared at the table as her expression was unreadable, the cogs in her mind spinning out of control as she started to come to a conclusion—a theory which she prayed couldn't be true.
"Senior year..." Aspen's voice came out as a decibel above a whisper— "The dread doctors....
and Theo Raeken..."
No one said anything, as all their glances fell to Aspen who's face had began to pale.
"Corey, Hayden, Tracey and Josh..." Aspen continued to voice her thoughts in an uneasy tone, "the chimeras that all died—but were brought back to life by..."
"Theo..." Stiles finished the sentence for her as she seemed to struggle to even say his name.
Aspen didn't think she'd ever have to hear, let alone say that name ever again in her entire life.
Despite going a decade without hearing it—not once has she ever been able to forget it.
She couldn't forget the name, she couldn't forget the face, she couldn't erase the trauma inflicted by him.
But most of all—she couldn't erase the guilt.
Not guilt for killing him with her bare hands—but the guilt that she felt because she didn't feel guilt.
Not once did she ever feel bad for what she did. Not when she watched the life leave his eyes, not as she held his bloody heart in the palm of her hand—and not once did she lose an ounce sleep over it.
"He..." Aspen said, "he brought them all back with the Dread Doctor's serum.
He.... he knew where Allison was buried..."
Stiles instantly wanted to tell her there was no way he could be the one behind all this. His mouth even opened for the words to come out of it—but no words were spoken. Because he couldn't assure her of something he didn't believe.
Because as haunting as it was to think about—they all knew that this was the most likely explanation.
"Oh my God..." Aspen's voice was shaky as the realisation came over her all at once, "It's—it's him, he's the one behind this. He— he used the serum on her, he dug up her grave twice— just to get back at me..."
Stiles wrapped a broad arm around her shoulder, trying to comfort as all the panic set in. Knowing Allison was out there and hungry for Aspen's blood all this time had been a nauseating realisation.
But realising it was because of her old nemesis, Theo Raeken, behind the whole thing?
Aspen didn't have the words to describe that feeling.
"As haunting as it may be to ponder that possibility," Deaton said apologetically, "I'm afraid it is the explanation that makes the most sense— and it helps me explain the latter part of your question..."
Aspen fell silent, doing her best to keep her composure until she had everything Deaton had to tell them.
"There are two different mythologies that I believe Allison's situation may fit into." he informed.
"Why do we keep calling them myths if they're never actually just myths?" Isaac scoffed.
Deaton ignored the Lahey man's comment, opening up a mythology book he'd brought with him, opening it up to a specific page. "The first one is vampirism."
At that word—everyone's eyes opened wide, even Josephine's—who for the first time since walking through the door, knew what they were talking about.
"I'm sorry, vampirism?" Josephine practically shrieked, "As in vampires? As in Edward Cullen? Stefan Salvatore? As in fangs and blood— that kind of vampirism?!"
"You think Allison's a vampire?" Malia said with narrowed eyes at Deaton, "Even I think that's far fetched."
"No, I don't think she's a vampire." Deaton scoffed a little bit, "But there are bits and pieces of the vampiric mythology that I believe can be applied to Allison's situation."
Deaton then spun around the book to show them all the page in the book he'd opened it up to. All of their glances narrowed in on the title of the page.
"You guys ever heard of a sire bond? "
Aspen reached her hand out for the book to pull it closer so she could read it, Stiles and Scott both peeking over her shoulders too to read the contents of the page.
the sire bond: The link between creator-creation. Creation complies with the direct and indirect orders of their creator in order to show their devotion and loyalty.
In the cases where the sire is deceased, the connection between the two beings is played out through the use of mind control; which can consist of hallucinations and rewiring brain manipulation.
"So Allison's sired to Theo?" Aspen looked up at Deaton, "Is that what you're implying?"
Deaton nodded.
"But this... Theo guy..." Josephine spoke up, "He's dead, right? Now, I'm an avid watcher of the Vampire Diaries— the sire bond breaks when the original vampire dies, right?"
"That may be how its depicted on television." Deaton said to Jo. "But in the true mythology of the bond, it's unbreakable."
"But she's not a vampire." Scott spoke, "Theo didn't bring her back with vampire blood."
"I get that it may be inappropriate timing..." Jo said a little hesitantly— "but I just have to ask... are we confirming that vampires are real? Because if so—"
"No," Deaton shook his head, "That's not what I'm suggesting. This situation with Allison—it's unique, like nothing ever seen before, it's an anomaly of the natural and supernatural worlds.
The only way to even come close to an explanation is to pick bits and pieces from existing mythology— we can't take everything too literally."
"Okay, you said you found two different mythologies to explain this—" said Aspen, "Sire bond is one of them, what's the other?"
Deaton opened the book up to a different page, "the myth of the Revenant."
Deaton slid the book back over to Aspen, as her eyes focused in on the words in front of her, still trying to keep it together despite how much she wanted to scream and break down right here and now.
A revenant: In folklore, a Revenant is an corpse that is believed to have been revived from death to haunt the living. The word revenant is derived from the Old French word, revenant, the "returning".
Revenants are weapons of revenge. While they do not come under the category of being supernatural, they have the capacity of strength to become as strong as one, for example, a werewolf. The physical strength of a Revenant is fed into with every life that they take. They would not radiate a supernatural aura, or be affected by mountain ash.
A Revenant's purpose, more often than not, is to kill one specific target. Though from the experience of death, their soul is tainted to the point where their value of innocent human life is eliminated. In order to get to their main target, they often will spare no expense when it comes to collateral damage.
"Holy shit..." Stiles murmured lowly as he finished reading the passage from Deaton's book, "That's too on the nose for it not to be true."
"Wait this part—" Aspen said as she pointed to one of the sentences, and recited it— "The physical strength of a Revenant is fed into with every life that they take. That's why she's been killing one person every three months since she's been back— she's been building up her strength..."
A chill ran through her whole body as the words left her lips.
"Okay so what we're saying is—" Aspen added in a slight panic, "Allison is a Revenant, who also has a sire bond to a person I killed?"
No one said anything, but the looks they all gave Aspen was confirmation enough.
"Okay well, that's comforting..." she murmured sarcastically, "Even in death, Theo Raeken manages to find a way to haunt my every being..."
"I hate to say it, but it makes sense..." Stiles said from beside her, "As haunting as it is— isn't it better to at least have an answer?"
"Sure, and it also confirms what I've known all along." Aspen shot back, "What all of you guys have been trying to deny—that there's no way out of this for me."
"Deaton— tell her that's not true." said Scott, "If we now know what Allison is, there's a way to fix her, right? To break the sire bond?"
As much as everyone prayed for words of reassurance from the veterinarian, they weren't met with one.
"I'm sorry, Scott." he said apologetically, "I'm not one for inspiring false confidence. I truly wasn't able to come across any sort of antidote or—"
"Loophole..." Aspen finished the sentence.
Allison's message replayed over and over and over again.
No running, no loopholes, no playing hero.
"So the only way this ends..." Aspen murmured lowly, "Is either we kill her all over again— or she kills me. But I can't play hero, which means I can't just hand myself over to her peacefully, and I'm also not allowed to run. She's doing all of this for him, for his revenge—"
Aspen suddenly cut herself off, another memory flooding back as everyone looked at her.
"Something she said on the phone when I was with Alex..." she added, "I asked her what she wanted from me, if I couldn't run or hand myself over— she said 'this isn't about what I want'... oh my God, how did I not figure this out sooner?"
"If we're correct in assuming that Theo is her sire," said Deaton, "then as it states in the sire bond mythology, this is a case of mind control. Despite not being alive, he's still in her head. His only way of existence is through Allison's mind, and he uses that inch of a gateway to manipulate her thinking, he most likely appears to her in visions and hallucinations."
"Okay, well— if this is a sire bond, can't Allison just like pull a Stefan Salvatore and fight the damn thing?" Stiles spoke up with a shrug.
He earned a few odd looks for his comment, and small laughter from Josephine and Aspen.
"What?" Stiles said defensively, "I've been with Aspen for like most of my life— of course I've watched the frickin' Vampire Diaries..."
"Raising 'em well." Jo said as she shot Aspen a humorous look, trying to somewhat lighten the very heavy mood. Aspen appreciated the effort and gave her a weak smile.
"Allison probably did try to fight the sire bond, for a little while, at least in the beginning." said Deaton. "She has all her memories—meaning she knows what Aspen was to her before she died, she still remembers the bond that they shared.
But we have to remember that it has been eleven years—I mean, just imagine trying to fight mind control for that long, I don't know if anyone could do that..."
Everyone fell silent as they all did exactly that—trying to imagine what it would be like to fight mind control for that long, to fight off brain manipulation.
Theo was rewiring Allison's way of thinking, successfully turning her against the person she had felt closest to when she was alive.
He managed to turn sisters into enemies.
"Theo probably didn't know what he was doing at the time, when he injected her body with the serum." said Deaton. "But his death is what triggered her to awaken as a weapon of his very own personal vengeance. That's Allison's new purpose— her sole reason for being alive again. She feels that she owes him because he's the one who gave her life again after being dead. He's most likely also manipulated her into thinking that her death was Aspen's fault, feeding into her thirst for blood."
"That's just beautiful..." Aspen murmured sarcastically under her breath.
"Okay, so— she's sired and under mind control." said Scott, "Surely there's a way to get the old Allison back though, Doc?"
"Well in vampirism, the sire bond is meant to break when the original vampire dies..." he replied, "But we can't treat this like vampirism— especially since Theo's already dead."
"Okay, that didn't answer the question." said Stiles, growing irritable out of his protective instinct for his brunette, "How the hell do we stop her?"
Deaton's eyes lingered on Aspen, who returned the knowing glance.
Aspen had hoped this conversation would give her answers—and that, it had. She now knew what Allison was, how she was so strong, why she wanted her dead, all of it now somehow made sense, despite how horrifying it was to know Theo Raeken was the puppeteer behind this.
But Aspen wasn't stupid— she didn't come into this expecting to find a way out.
Because she didn't believe in one— not since this whole thing started, and the pit in her stomach had grown bigger every day. That feeling she'd never truly had before, and yet recognised so clearly. The feeling that there wasn't going to be some magical way out like there had been every other time.
"Regression to the mean..." Aspen said lowly, causing everyone to turn their heads to her, while she just looked at Deaton knowingly. "The ideology that nature always balances things out..."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Isaac said, confused.
"Every time we've faced supernatural threats, which— just to remind you all, was about ten or eleven times— we found some magic, miracle way out." Aspen said solemnly, "All of us avoided death countless times, even when we seriously shouldn't have.
Nature is imbalanced, it has been for years— eventually there had to come a time where we wouldn't win..."
No one knew what to say after that.
Everyone had been clinging to hope for a miracle for the last couple months, because they knew that there had always been a way every time before.
But Aspen never had such hope.
Because she knew, she had known ever since the day she walked into her office on a Monday morning after getting back from Paris to find a document waiting on her desk, telling her that Stiles Stilinski was arrested for murder— she'd known ever since that this wouldn't end well.
Aspen had a gut feeling— and her gut feeling never lied.
//
yk that tiktok trend based on the idea of the scream movies?
makes the calls: theo
does the killings: allison