—
"She's not dead."
"Derek, he said, "there's a dead body. It's Erica." Doesn't exactly leave us much room for interpretation." Stiles told him, pursuing his lips together.
The Hale man looked up, "Then who was in the vault with Boyd?"
"Obviously, it was someone else." Ryder rolled her eyes, "How dense could you be?"
"Ryder." Ramona scolded.
"And maybe it was the girl on the motorcycle. Okay, the one who saved you?" Scott suggested, pointing to Isaac, the Lahey shaking his head, water droplets falling at the action.
"No, she wasn't like us. And whoever was in the vault with Boyd was."
Austin frowned, wondering if the other person could have been someone they possibly knew. He shook his head of the thought, brushing off the concerned look his girlfriend's sister gave him.
"What if that's how Erica died?"
"They, like, pit them against each other during the full moons and see which one survives. It's like werewolf thunderdome." Stiles practically gushed.
"That's not a good thing." Ramona said, watching the smile fall from his face,
"She's right, we need to get them out tonight."
"Be smart about this, Derek. You can't just go storming in." Deaton warned him.
"If Isaac got in, then so can we." Derek said, his face showing nothing but determination.
Ryder didn't even try to hold back an eye roll, "Are we not recalling the last time you thought it was okay to do things your way? Or do you need to be the one getting drowned to remember that?"
"She's not wrong." Josie spoke up, simply humming as their eyes fell on her, not expecting to speak, "I get told all the stories, and you're always wrong."
"He didn't go through a vault door, did he?" Deaton asked rhetorically.
Scott crossed his arms over his chest, "We need a plan."
"One that'll actually work." Austin muttered, watching as Stiles grabbed his laptop from his bag.
"How are we gonna come up with a plan to break into a bank vault in less than 24 hours?"
"Uh, I think someone already did." The Stilinski frowned, "Beacon hills first national closes its doors three months after vault robbery." Doesn't say here how it was robbed, but it probably won't take long to find out."
"How long?"
Austin rolled his eyes, "Being impatient won't get you anywhere."
Stiles followed with a scoff, "It's the Internet, Derek. Okay? Minutes."
•••
It, in fact, didn't take 'minutes' as Stiles said. It actually took all night, and even then, they barely got anything.
Austin was the first to wake up at the sound of Noah Stilinski's voice. His head lifting from his arms that were placed over his knees.
"Boys. Hey, time to wake up. Boys. Boys! I got to get to work. You three get to school."
Scott and Austin got barely a yawn out before Stiles was calling out to his dad,
"Dad! Heather?"
The Sheriff pressed his lips together, head shaking in sympathy, "No, nothing yet."
Austin couldn't help but groan, rolling his neck to get out any cricks, as he began to pick up all the loose paper on the floor, "Ten hours and nothing."
"We're gonna find something."
Stiles dropped his arms, "Finding something doesn't make Erica any less dead or Boyd any less about-to-be-dead."
"Well, we still have time."
"I love your optimism, McCall." Austin tapped his shoulder.
"Yeah, is this whole, like, "remain optimistic "in the face of complete and utter disaster" thing a part of the "be a better Scott McCall" program?"
"Uh, not if it doesn't work." Scott smiled, yet the sight wasn't one that showed any happiness.
"No, it works." He nodded.
"Hey, look at this." Austin spoke up, putting a paper in front of Stiles' line of vision.
"Oh, dad! Dad? Dad!"
•••
The group of supernaturals and two humans gathered around the table in the middle of Derek's loft, leaning collectively leaning over to watch and pay attention to what Stiles pointed to.
"Okay. You see this? This is how they got in. It's a rooftop air conditioning vent. Leads down inside into the wall of the vault, which is here. Okay?" He looked up to make sure everyone was following along.
"One of the robbers was lowered into this shaft Now, that space is so small, it took him about 12 hours to drill into that wall, which is stone, by the way. Then throughout the rest of the night, they siphoned the cash up to the guys back on the roof through that one little shaft in the wall. Boom."
"Okay..." Ryder trailed off.
Scott, seeming to understand where she was going, took over, "Can we fit in there?"
"Yes, we can, but very, very barely."
"So we'd be claustrophobic." Austin pursed his lips, dimples showing at how hard he did it.
"If you wanna put it that way, then yeah. And they also patched the wall, obviously, so we're gonna need a drill of some kind. I'm thinking maybe a diamond bit—"
Derek cut him off, "Look, forget the drill."
Stiles raised his brows, "Sorry?"
"Yeah, maybe not." Ryder spoke in Stiles' defense, "This could all go to shit if you decide you want to change things last minute."
"She's right, Derek, you don't know what you're risking." The blonde looked to Scott in appreciation, thankful that he was finally starting to agree with her.
His approval didn't seem to matter, however, as Derek simply brushed them off.
"If I go in first, how much space do I have?"
"What do you—what do you think you're gonna do, Derek?" Stiles squinted, "You gonna punch through the wall?"
"Yes, Stiles, I'm gonna punch through the wall."
"Hmm, werewolf or not, that could seriously damage your hand." Austin commented in a low voice, smiling a bit as he felt Ryder grab his hand.
"Okay, okay, big guy. Let's see it. Let's see that fist. Big, old fist. Make it, come on. Get it out there. Don't be scared. Big, bad wolf. Yeah, look at that." Stiles mocked him.
Ryder and Austin shared a look, rolling their eyes in unison as they watched on.
"Okay, see this? That's maybe three inches of room to gather enough force to punch through solid co—"
Stiles whimpers in pain when Derek sent a punch to his hand, knocking him back a few steps.
"He could do it."
Ryder let a soft breath as Stiles shuffled to stand on the other side of her. Taking her free hand, she placed it on his wrist, quietly taking away any pain the teen felt from the hit. She didn't think much of it, but Stiles could feel his heart speed up at the contact, glancing nervously at Austin, who payed no attention to anyone in the room, content with twisting the rings on his girlfriends fingers.
Stiles often struggled to remember that.
Ryder was Austin's girlfriend. He couldn't let himself get caught up in the idea of liking the girl. She didn't even seem to harbor what he felt for her, only thinking she was doing a good deed by taking away his pain.
But God, for a split second, did he wish she put her hand back on his after taking it away.
"I'll get through the wall. Who's following me down?" Derek asked, looking around.
"Did you expect volunteers?"
"Like father, like daughter, huh? Those snarky comments never stop."
"Don't get your ass kicked, Derek." The girl snapped, "You couldn't take Scott, I doubt the last person you wanna try is me."
"Relax, family." Peter called from the steps, leaning on his elbows to look down at everyone. His attention fell to Derek, "I'm not up to fighting speed yet, and honestly, with Isaac out of commission, you're not looking at very good odds for yourself."
Derek huffed at his uncle, "So I'm supposed to just let them die?"
"One of them is already dead." Peter reminded him.
"We don't know that."
"We don't not know it." Austin whispered to himself, the only one not hearing him being Stiles.
"Do I have to remind you what we're up against here? A pack of alphas. All of them, Killers. And if that's not enough to scare your testicles back into your stomach—
"Ew."
"—try to remember that two of them combine bodies to form one giant Alpha. I'm sure Erica and Boyd were sweet kids. They're gonna be missed."
"Could someone kill him again, please?" Stiles scoffed,
"Please."
Peter rolled his eyes, "Derek, seriously? Not worth the risk."
Derek let out a breath, turning back to face the teens, "What about you?"
"Yeah, if you want me to come—"
"He's not talking about you, Stiles." Austin cut it him off.
"Got it."
"I don't know about Erica. But if Boyd's still alive, we have to do something. We have to try." Scott said.
"But?"
"Who's the other girl? The one locked in there with Boyd?"
"Who's to say we don't already know who it is?"
—
A/N: it's my birthday!!
also thank you guys so much for over 70k reads, it means a lot