[somewhere in Mexico]
The plan to save Derek from hunters was a plan Lulu had mistakenly left to a group of teenagers she'd never met. Their plan was to send two of their friends to speak to the head of the hunters and offer her a lot of money in exchange for Derek. While a human and banshee meet with Araya Calavera, two wolves, a coyote, and a kitsune were inside the Calavera Club doing their best to blend in with all the dancing bodies.
It all went downhill when the Calavera hunters found out they were there in the club and sought them out. Naturally, they kicked the hunter's asses before making their way into a hallway that would lead to the main office.
Being able to hear the blaring horns from inside the club made the supernatural being unaware of the fog emitting from the ground of the hallway. With hesitant steps, they continue their trek only for the noticeable fog to fall from the ceiling. The wolves and coyote started to be affected by the wolfsbane-laced fog while the kitsune wasn't.
The hunters really left nothing up to chance and surrounded the kitsune before she could fight her way out. The last thing Lulu hears before the wolfsbane makes her lose consciousness is Scott telling the Calavera matriarch, "You don't know where he is either"
●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●
The teens all walk into the restaurant two miles away from where they were meant to be by midday, only having a few hours to cement their plan. Only two of the five teens make it into the restaurant looking for a specific person they'd only heard speak over the phone
"Derek gets kidnapped by hunters and we call a total stranger?" Stiles shouts in a whisper the few people in the establishment turning to look their way
"Derek made sure I knew she was his emergency contact. This is an emergency," Scott repeats once again as Stiles was the only one not on board with asking a complete stranger for help
They looked around wondering who was the woman they talked on the phone with. The teens couldn't tell who they were supposed to be looking for but Lulu knew exactly who they were once they walked through the door because those two California teens stood out.
Lulu raises her hand waving the teen boys over to her table. The teen boys look at each other before walking over to the table where the brunette woman stands up, "You must be Scott and...?"
"S-stiles" The teen boy stutters at the beautiful woman who stood around their height with dark eyes that were inviting rather than intimidating
"Well sit both of you it seems we have a lot to discuss," Lulu tells the teen boys and not waiting for them to do as she says she sits down
"How do you know Derek?" Scott asks sitting down across from the brunette who had her hair up in a ponytail and wore small bold gold hoop earrings
"We met in a bar in South America," Lulu answers knowing the boy was the werewolf and could hear her heart for lies
"His emergency contact is a one-night stand?" Stiles says in disbelief knowing the name Lulu sounded like a stripper name the moment Scott told it to him
"Stiles" the best friend scolds looking apologetically at Lulu who didn't care for the comments. If the worst Stiles was to believe of her is that she slept with Derek then that was on him because there wasn't anything bad about the idea
"No, his emergency contact is someone who has been a werewolf for the past five years without getting on a hunter's radar," Lulu informs them making sure it was known that she was risking a lot for going against hunters and making herself known even if she lived in another continent
"No supernatural disasters? No family hunters? No Alpha pack? No Nogitsune?" Stiles lists off the main villains they had to face since Scott got turned and that was all in less than five years
"None of that," Lulu answers wanting to ask her own questions as to how they handled all of that because teenage her would have not survived well
"What are your qualifications?" Stiles asks with confidence because while the woman may know Derek she hadn't gone through the hell they had
"I am here," Lulu states as it was already too late for them to ignore her and to make sure they knew she wasn't going to a liability Lulu leans into the table looking at the boy wearing a flannel and shines her golden eyes
"How did Derek find you?" Stiles lastly asks shocked as Scott hadn't told him he smelled a werewolf meaning she knew how to masked herself
"Oh, that's sweet. I found him," Lulu grins because while it probably was that they found each other, it really was Lulu who walked up to him "Now what exactly is this plan?"
It was safe to say the plan did not work. If it had worked they wouldn't have ended up in a cleared-out restroom that had been foolproofed against any supernatural beings escaping.
Kira was the first to notice Scott open his eyes, making her exclaim in relief, "He's awake! Guys, he's awake!"
The people Kira was calling to walk over to the abandoned restroom where the true alpha lay. Since Scott had been the one to do his best to stay conscious once the fog hit he breathed in more than the two girls making it hit him harder once he fell
"Scott, you okay?" Stiles asks kneeling down to help his best friend sit up
"Yeah..." Scott groggily replies, catching his bearing before remembering something important, "They don't have him. They don't have Derek."
"We know..." Kira softly says before breaking the more important news "But right now, they've got Lydia."
"Lydia?" Scott quickly asks with urgency as other than predicting death Lydia was human meaning she could get hurt "What do they want with Lydia?"
"She is a banshee," Lulu shrugs as that's the only reason she could come up with since waking up and hearing the news recapped by Stiles, that is once he got past being shoved in the room
Scott makes his way over to the steel door that had a small rectangular tinted window. He tries to open the door by putting his fingers through the wedge but nothing.
"Save your strength," Lulu tells the teenager already having tried everything with the help of Malia's extra strength
"We already looked for a way out." Kira tells Scott who stops trying to open the door and notices the various scratches on the wall "I think a lot of people have."
"I say, when that door opens again, we take out whoever's standing in the way and run for it," Malia voices her master plan whose flaw was that they didn't know what to expect if the hunters opened the door
"Run?" Lulu mutters not thinking that was their style, but considering she just learned the were-coyote was recently turned back to her human form after years of living as a coyote in the woods Lulu decided to give her a pass when it came to ethics
"What about Lydia?" Kira questions as that was the only flaw with the plan
Confused Malia looks at the raven-haired Kitsune, "What about her?"
"We're not leaving without her," Scott states throwing that plan in the trash
"Why not?" Malia asks still confused with why they wouldn't save themselves
Stiles walks up to her being the only real tether for Malia in the human world, "Because we don't leave without people. Remember, we talked about this? Rules of the wild kingdom don't apply to friends."
Malia looks down at her hands realizing she'd said something wrong, once again. Kira, wanting to better understand, asks, "Is that what you would do as a coyote? Leave her for dead?"
"If she was weak and injured, yeah. If hunting had been bad that season, I would eat her." Malia answers it being logical and if everyone in that room thought that way it would be an acceptable answer "Then I'd leave."
"Mmm... Believe it or not, that's progress," Stiles mutters truthfully because it had been a hard challenge getting a stubborn were-coyote to sit down and understand the human world's unspoken rules
"All right, guys." Scott gets everyone's attention back to the real topic at hand "We're not dead yet, and that means Araya wants something."
"But, if the Calaveras don't know where Derek is, that means they didn't take him from the loft, right?" Kira hopefully asks knowing what Derek means to Scott
"Maybe he left on his own?" Stiles suggests having no backup plan
While Lulu may not have known Derek enough like the rest she couldn't help but ask, "Without telling you all somehow that he was not killed by hunters? Is that something he would do?"
"Maybe someone else got to him," Scott suggests believing in Lydia's premonition that just gave them the reassurance that Derek wasn't dead but he also wasn't alive either
The doors to the room they were in open and men with big guns make their way inside. They took Scott and Kira leaving no room for a fight to happen or to run like Malia wanted to. If they were to pick a fight a bullet could ricochet to Stiles or be laced with wolfsbane that could kill them or because they try to leave it could lead to Lydia's death
Lulu stood with her head against the metal door all her consternation on finding Scott, Lydia, and Kira's voices. All she'd gathered so far was that they were in the same room and Araya was playing a game with them. A game that consisted of friends hurting each other in order to protect one another while having to answer questions they didn't know the answers to - torture but to Araya a game.
Stiles places a hand on Lulu's shoulder breaking her concentration, "Can you hear them? Kira? Lydia? Scott?"
"Yes, they are in the same room, but they are chained and forced to stay for something" Lulu answers looking over at Malia who sat on the ground in between two sinks "Did Malia not tell you?"
"No, she can't... she can't hear them," Stiles admits which confused Lulu but that quickly vanished wanting to help
Lulu walks over to Malia knowing hearing things from a distance was a survival tool the young girl needed to have, "What is wrong, why can you not hear what they are saying?"
"I can't concentrate. I... There's too many sounds... and voices..." Malia was irritated with her lack of ability to concentrate
"Okay. It's okay." Stiles calmly says, not wanting her to stress and walks over to kneel before Malia "Well, just breathe. Breathe with me, all right? You practiced this with Scott before, remember?"
"I'm trying..."
"Well let us teach you. We are not going anywhere." Lulu walks over to the couple and squats down to look at Malia "It is all about focusing on a specific sound or feeling. Sometimes all you need to do is do something you know helps you concentrate"
Malia listens and closes the gap between her and Stiles planting an abrupt kiss on him.
The kiss breaking allows Malia to open her eyes that glow blue allowing her to listen to the noises outside and focus on particular sounds. Hearing the electricity along with Scott panting in pain trying to appear as if what was happening didn't hurt. The lights in the room started to flicker just as the two supernatural beings were able to hear Araya shout ten which would cause deadly electricity to soar through Scott's body.
Malia, hearing Scott's shouts of pain frantically informs Stiles of the most important thing she could hear, "They're killing him!"
Someone who has a vendetta against the Hales, who turned not by a bite but scratch without them knowing, and Scott says the name. Lulu looks at the couple for answers, "Who is Kate and why would she take Derek?"
Knowing the only Kate Scott could have named makes Stiles lean back and sit on the ground, "That's impossible. It's impossible! That can't be what he said."
"Why? Who-who's Kate?" Malia asks being as lost at the sudden common knowledge of the name
"She's a Hunter..." Stiles vaguely answers "An Argent."
Not knowing the importance of the name Argent, Lulu was even more confused. Suddenly the act of kindness she'd offered in helping the teens get Derek back was leaving her with more questions and zero answers.
●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●
The Calaveras let the pack and Lulu go, all to see if they would even survive in finding Derek. Lulu stood with the rest of the teens leaning against the blue jeep watching Scott talking to Araya. Lulu couldn't help but listen to the conversation and especially didn't regret it when Araya threatened Scott. The threat was about when Scott bites an innocent she will be the one to cross his border and knock on his door.
Araya walks away making Stiles walk away from his jeep and towards his friend, "So, what now?"
"She thinks she knows where we can find Derek," Scott says but never specifies where they would be going
"She's gonna tell us where?" Malia asks with arms crossed all the girls standing directly under the burning sun
"Uh, actually, she's giving us a guide." Scott shrugs not knowing the details and just in the dark as they were
A motorcycle rides down the empty dirt road toward them and the person on the bike is dressed in black. Not being able to see the woman's face Lulu's attention was solely on their guide, "How mysterious"
"You know her?" Stiles asks Scott while the guide takes off their motorcycle helmet
In shock at the woman with healed claw marks running down her face and neck sitting before them Scott says, "Braeden."
"Who's Braeden?" Malia asks before Lulu could
"She's a mercenary," Lydia answers eyes on the dark-skinned woman
The soldier by hire looks around at the group taking in the new faces before making them know she wasn't there to kill anyone, "Right now, I'm the only one who's gonna take you to La Iglesia."
"Una iglesia?" Lulu speaks with furrowed brows that weren't because of the sun as that could literally be any church and once again gave more questions than answers
"The Church?" Lydia translates the mercenary's words for everyone
"What's 'The Church?'" Stiles asks the name sounding like an important place and not just any church
"It's not a place you'll find God."
The group followed Braeden's lead. While Lulu didn't fit in the baby blue jeep, she'd made it into town on her own motorcycle. Unlike Braeden's, hers was a rental and not at all shiny new. Braeden drove at the front followed by the Jeep and Lulu who stayed at the back just in case.
After miles of dirt road with no landmarks to differentiate the past 10 miles the Jeep came to a stop. Lulu could tell it wasn't that Stiles wanted to stop but rather the swerving meant something was wrong with the car.
Lulu stops her bike at the side of the driver's and takes off her helmet quickly asking over the dirt wind, "Is everyone okay?"
"We're good," Lydia says through the window in the back seat everyone getting out of the car
Braeden, having turned around to stop, asks the boys looking at the outside of the car for damage, "What happened?
"I don't know-" Stiles answers, not seeing anything visibly wrong with the exterior of his car or wheels "it felt like we hit something."
"Scott, we need to get there by night. It's too dangerous, otherwise." Braeden states with urgency as there needed to be a priority to be chosen
Stiles chooses for Scott before the Alpha can consider staying with his friends. The priority wasn't the jeep or more than half of them staying behind, the priority was finding Derek before the moon rises. Scott didn't leave without listening to Kira tell him to be careful and followed by a long hug.
Lulu started to wonder if she'd read the two wrong, she'd thought they were a couple but after that hug, Scott and Kira may just be friends. Of course, that long hug between 'friends' lasted longer than most would, leaving Braeden to remind Scott that they had to leave.
Rather than driving at the back, Lulu drove beside Scott and Braeden, for many and many miles of dirt road. They didn't stop until near a cliff where they were able to see what once was a town. The ruins were all surrounding a recognizable figure of a Church that was their destination.
"La Iglesia." Braeden presents to the two wolves who stood next to her
"What happened here?" Scott asks looking at the Mexican village ruins
"An earthquake. It leveled the town," Braeden informs the two, making Lulu raise her hand over her face and with two fingers doing the motion of the cross. Lulu may have abandoned all faith in religion after cutting ties with her family but some of the practices still brought her comfort
"Then why is the church still standing?" Scott asks the mighty church looked almost untouched by any earthquake, it only looked abandoned
"The locals think it's because of what's underneath..."
Lulu looks away from the town as nothing good comes to mind, "Not spooky at all"
"Do we wanna know?" Scott asks the guide who must have done her research
"The church was built over the ruins of an Aztec temple. It belonged to a people called the Nagual [na'wal]." Braeden informs the two wolves without breaking her focus on the church
"Shapeshifters?" Scott questions remembering that word from some story he'd read
While Lulu may know a bit about Aztec culture and spoke Spanish she wasn't Mexican. The woman raised half her life in the states descended from Puerto Rico and Guatemala, yet there was fascination at the name Nagual making her ask, "Jaguars?"
"Werejaguars," Braeden corrects the two
"So, Derek and Kate are somewhere in there?" Scott looks at the guide who so far held all the answers
Braeden just shrugs, "I don't know. Never gotten this far before."
"That brings zero comfort," Lulu sighs following Braeden's lead and makes her way to her bike
Finally knowing the destination wasn't as comforting as they thought it would be, especially considering the time they arrived at the ruins the sun had set and night fell.
Braeden gave her flashlight to Scott allowing her to carry a shotgun in both hands as they walked away from their motorcycles and past the abandoned buildings. They'd decided to trek on their feet toward their destination since they didn't know what they were up against and had a better chance of sneaking up on anything on foot.
Turning a corner to face the church Braeden cocked her gun making Scott worriedly look at the weapon, "If you find Kate in here, what are you gonna do with her?"
"Bring her back to the Calaveras." Braeden answers taking the first step towards the unhinged broken doors "That's what they paid me for."
"What happens after that?" Scott asks never having killed anyone hence the true alpha status
Braeden simply shakes her head never having to think that far, "Not my problem."
"You don't care?" Scott questions as killing Kate would still be killing a person
"Do you? She's a mass murderer" Braeden counters, giving Lulu the first detail as to who Kate was. While hunters were known to kill, they would never be labeled as mass murderers
"And you're a mercenary"
"Girl's gotta eat!" Braeden defends herself as there was a massive difference between her and Kate even if Scott didn't fully understand what it meant to be a mercenary
"If you were paid enough, would you kill her?" Scott asks looking around to make sure they truly were alone
"If the money was good," Braeden stops to turn and face the two wolves saying with certainty "I'd kill you both."
"Wow. You must have tons of friends," Lulu sarcastically says following after the mercenary who starts kicking some badly place board against the gap between the main doors
The church looked anything but holy. It had potential under all the dust, cobwebs, and broken benches - it wasn't enough for any of them to want to stay longer than needed
"Can you catch Derek's scent?" Braeden asks her voice echoing through the room
"Yeah, I already got it..." Scott answers having a better file of what Derek smells while Lulu was having a harder time focusing on the bearded man's scent
The three didn't walk too far before Scott and Lulu heard a distant faded roar, they didn't know what it was because it didn't sound like a wolf. Lulu grabs Braeden's arm to stop her from walking, to the human the roar sounded like wind. Noticing the puzzling look on both wolves' faces who had stopped to listen Braeden asks, "What?"
"There's some...thing else in here," Lulu tries her best to describe what she heard but did not know if it could be described as a person or animal
"Something like what?" Braeden asks getting ready to point and shoot if needed
"Something not human" Scott answers the best he could
Braeden points her gun at the space before her and starts to walk ahead. The two wolves made sure she knew what turns to take and if they needed to turn in a different direction. Derek's scent leads them to staircases leading downstairs
Tired of the silence, Braeden breaks it by asking, "So, how come you didn't kiss her?"
The question was directed at Scott making him furrow his brows, "What?"
"How come you didn't kiss your girlfriend?" Braeden repeats herself looking straight ahead
"I have also been wondering that," Lulu chimes with curiosity still not believing they were just friends "Why did you not kiss her?"
"You mean Kira?"
The woman had two different responses Lulu simply says, "Yeah" while Braeden shrugs "Whatever her name is."
"Well, she's not really, uh... I mean, we've never actually..." Scott struggles to answer the question before sticking with the truth "She's not my girlfriend..."
"So, if you die down here, are you gonna regret not kissing her?" Braeden asks, making the teen boy turn back to look at the woman with dread "...You should've kissed your girlfriend."
They continued walking through a new hallway that had vines, a full skeleton, and way more cobwebs at every turn. They slowly walk down the hall as there was a breeze and slow movements from the wooden floorboard upstairs making them think one sudden move and it could collapse
Scott was the first one to hear the bonelike rattles behind them making him turn and point the light behind them. Braeden, not seeing anything, whispers, "What?"
"Just had a feeling like something was behind him..." Scott answers not bothering to whisper, because if someone was there they'd already given up their location and were sitting ducks
The three continue to slowly make their way down the crowded dark hallway still able to hear some sort of low growl Braeden turns around, "You hear that?"
"Is this why you never get that far?" Scott asks wondering if that noise was the thing that had killed the Calavera men
Sudden sounds of footsteps running their way make Braeden shout "Get ready!"
Without a second guess, Braeden shoots and doesn't stop as they walk backward with Lulu guiding them back a hand on both their shoulders.
"Where is it? Do you see it?" Braeden calls out not wanting to keep wasting her shells on empty space
"No, I don't know! I can't see anything!" Scott shouts in response there is blood on his cheek but none of them having been cut
"It is coming back, Braeden wait," Lulu tells the woman who had her finger on the trigger pointed to the hall before them
The low roaring the mysterious being emitted was taunting them as it bounced off the walls making it hard to pinpoint the starting origin. Still not seeing anything Braeden asks, "Where is this thing?"
At the realization of what could happen Braeden whispers, "Scott, get behind me..."
The teen boy doesn't listen and Lulu was ready to pull him behind her because he was just a kid. Braeden loudly repeats herself "Scott, get behind me!"
Before Lulu could get a tight grip on Scott's shirt the teen boy takes a step forward and lets his eyes glow red before roaring. The roar was loud enough to shake the building and make the two women have to cover. Braden covered her ears while Lulu covered the human with her body not wanting anything to fall and majorly hurt her
The hallway they'd come from was blocked as the ceiling had collapsed on it meaning no one was coming through there and they would have to find another exit. Turning around to face the two women Scott whispers, "...I think I scared it."
"I think you scared everything," Braeden standing makes him realize there was no longer any wind or echo noises around them
A wall crumbles behind them and in turning around they are able to see through the dirt mist a secret room that had a wall with Aztec symbols. Scott picks up his flashlight asking, "What is that?"
Not afraid of anything else around them Lulu walks at a faster rate into the secret room to look at the well-preserved circular engraved symbols, "It is beautiful"
"Tezcatlipoca-- the Nagual jaguar god." Braeden answers Scott's question, noticing the familiar animal drawing from her research "I think we found Derek..."
Scott puts his ear to the wall and hears a faint but strong heartbeat. Derek or not someone was behind that wall alive, "Stand back."
Scott raises his fist ready to punch his way through the circular carvings but Lulu stops him, "Wait!"
"What?" Scott asks worried that she heard something he'd missed
"This is somebody's culture." Lulu states knowing that was the last thing on their mind but while it wasn't her culture she wanted to preserve it "Let me at least take a photo before you turn it into ash"
The mercenary and alpha allow Lulu to take three photos of the symbol before Scott rams his fist into the wall breaking it apart. There being a big enough circle in the wall for them all to see through they huddle up to see the person whose heartbeat the two wolves had heard
A young hand reaches out for the light which was not the hand of the Derek Lulu had met. Scott, knowing exactly who the teen boy in the tomb was, says with wide eyes "Oh, my God..."
Scott and Lulu were the ones to carry a young Derek Hale - Scott explained how that boy was Derek, even if somehow he'd aged back to his teen years - out of the church while Braeden cleared the area before them. The kid may have had his eyes open but he had zero strength to move and kept falling in and out of conscious
Walking out of the unhinged doors the four are met with car headlights belonging to a baby blue jeep. The friends in the car race out for some of them to very surprised at the body the two wolves carried
"Is that him? Is that Derek?" Malia asks Stiles who was as shocked to see a young boy being held up by two werewolves, that kid was not near the size of Derek Hale and had zero of the adult's facial hair
"Uh... Sort of..." Stiles answers just as the boy looked up with confused green eyes looking around
There was no way Lulu could leave them now.
●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●
a/n: hope yall like