beacon hills animal clinic
"It can't be. They haven't been in Beacon Hills for years." Deaton says as he looks through the pictures on my phone. No one is in the pictures, but he knows who the owners of all the tools and gadgets are.
"Who?" Scott asks.
"The Dread Doctors." Deaton responds.
"I'm sorry, the what?" Stiles asks.
"They're scientists who worship the supernatural. They've been here before." Deaton says, handing me back my phone. "And the last time they were here, a lot of people died."
"And now it seems like they wanna kill us. That's fantastic." Stiles says.
"What are they doing here? Why come again?" Scott asks.
"They want to bring back the perfect killer." Chris says, walking into the animal clinic. We turn to look at him, confusion on our faces. "Just got back from talking with my dad. They're here not to create the perfect killer, but to resurrect one. The Beast of Gévaudan."
"Yes." Deaton says. "That makes sense. It makes sense. Josh being taken. Experimented on. Controlled. They are using teenagers to try and resurrect the Beast."
"Teenagers?" I ask, emphasizing the 's' at the end of the word. "So how many more?"
This time Chris answers. "Don't know. I'm assuming if they fail, they'll try again. I talked with the Sheriff earlier. There's been an increase in missing person reports. Almost all of them are regarding teenagers." He turns to Scott. "They don't want anyone in their way. That's why they had someone come after you. They wanted to eliminate you before you became a threat."
"How do we stop them?" Scott asks.
"I'm not sure you can." Chris says.
Everyone is silent as the begin to process the gravity of the situation. Deaton was right, someone is trying to bend the rules, and they've done it.
"There's gotta be a way." Scott says. "No more missing teenagers, no more experiments. I'm going to put an end to this."
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stilinski household
"What is Deaton calling them?" my dad asks when we get home.
"Chimeras." Stiles answers.
We explain to my Dad everything Deaton told us and about what we found in the tunnels. Deaton wants to talk to my dad and Melissa, see if we can find a connection as to why Josh was specifically taken, chosen, for this experiment.
After talking with my dad I head upstairs to my room and think about everything that's happened in the last couple of months. All the new threats and dangers. How the hell am I supposed to protect the people I care about, the people I love if I can't even protect myself.
I can't control my abilities well enough to hold someone off, by well, you know, inflicting unbearable pain on them to stop them.
I don't know how to fight well enough, I got lucky with Josh...
I need to be better prepared.
I look at the time. He should still be awake.
I grab my cellphone and dial his number.
"Veronica." he answers.
"Hey, Derek. Sorry this is kind of late..."
"That's all right. Everything ok?" he asks.
"Yeah, yeah I guess. I was actually wondering if you were busy tomorrow."
"Not really, why?"
"I need a favor."
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next morning; derek hale's loft
"You want me to what?" Derek asks.
Malia just dropped me off at her cousins loft.
I take a deep breath before I ask Derek again. "I want you to teach me how to fight."
He crosses his arms. "No." he says as he walks away.
"Oh, come on. Why not?" I ask as I walk after him.
He stops and turns to look at me. "I can think of about 10 off the top of my head right now."
"Ok, well name one." I counter.
He shakes his head. "Why do you want to learn how to fight?"
I sigh. "Because I want to be able to defend my friends. My family. And I don't want to feel like I need someone to defend me. I want to be able to defend myself."
He doesn't say anything. His arms are still crossed over his chest and he leans against a table, thinking about his answer.
"Please." I whisper.
"Fine." he says after a while.
"Yes! I mean, uh, I mean thank you." I say.
He smiles, but tries to hide it. "Saturday mornings."
"Sounds great. Thanks again Derek."
Malia opens the door and walks in. "So what'd he say?" she asks.
"He said yes." I reply.
"We start next week." Derek says.
"All right. I'll be here too." she says.
We look at her questioningly.
"What? I wanna help too." she says.
"Perfect." I say, a smile forming on my lips.
"Ok, well lets go. I'm hungry." Malia says.
I nod and wave goodbye to Derek.
"Bye cousin." Malia says to Derek as we walk out.
"Bye cousin." Derek calls out right before we close the door behind us.
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monday evening; stilinski household
Earlier today Malia, my brother and I stopped by the Sheriff's station to talk to my dad. He's been working on gathering all the information related to the disappearing teenagers since the Dread Doctors came to town.
My dad fears that if they aren't successful, they'll kill them.
Malia thinks that that's what happened to Donavan. She thinks the Dread Doctors took him, experimented on him and weren't able to resurrect the Beast through him so they killed him. That would explain a lot of things, actually.
Josh, where are you? Have they taken him? Is he hiding?
The sound of glass breaking interrupts my train of thought. I go downstairs and into the kitchen where Stiles is picking up broken glass from the floor.
"What happened?" I ask.
"Dropped the glass cup." he responds.
I help him pick up all the pieces and throw them away. I notice his hands are slightly shaking, but it's still noticeable.
"You ok?" I ask.
"Yeah."
"No. I don't think you are." I say and point to his hands.
"I said I'm fine." he says before rushing up the stairs and closing the door to his room.
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wednesday; stilinksi household
Scott is dropping me off at home, his bike is in my driveway. I get off the motorcycle and hand him back the helmet. We are coming back from the animal clinic, which we went to after school. I was working on my abilities with Deaton.
This time I did it, I actually did it. I was able to take the pain around me and direct it using my hands, transferring it into Scott. But this time it was different. All the other times, I was so worried about hurting Scott, that the thought alone prevented me from being able to transfer pain. So I found a way to control the amount of pain I direct. It took a lot of trial and error but I did it. And since I didn't have to worry about hurting Scott, it worked. Every. Single. Time.
"It's fine. Honestly, I barely felt anything." Scott says after I apologize for what feels like the millionth time. "The good thing now, is that it seems like you have this all figured out."
I nod. "Seems like it."
We stand by his motorcycle. He looks down at his helmet before looking up at me. "So...I talked to Liam yesterday."
"Oh. About?" I ask, suddenly curious.
"I think I should let him tell you himself." Scott answers.
A car pulls up on the street and parks in front of my house. Liam gets out of the car and begins to walk towards us. Scott and Liam greet each other, just like they always did. A smile. A hug. It's almost as if there had been no separation between them.
"I should get going." Scott says. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."
I say goodbye to Scott and watch him take off on his bike before turning to Liam.
"Hey." he says.
"Hi."
"I was wondering if we could talk."
"Yeah, sure." I say as I walk towards the door and he follows. I unlock it and we walk in. I shut the door and put my backpack down on the couch. He stands in the middle of the living room, looking around the walls of my house. He hasn't been here in a while. I place my keys on the table and he turns to look at me.
"Sorry I didn't call." he says.
"That's ok."
"Your family isn't home?"
"Not yet."
He nods.
"So what did you want to talk about?" I ask, starting to get nervous, not knowing what to expect.
"Right. Yeah. I've been thinking a lot about what you said to me, when we were in the tunnels. And you were right. What I was doing wasn't fair to you guys. So I thought about it and I've made a decision. And I thought it'd be better if I'd tell you myself, and in person."
"And what did you decide?" I ask him, my heart beating faster than it was beating before, hoping he's going to say what I want to hear.
"I've decided to stay. And that I want to rejoin the pack. This is all part of who I am. You're all a part of who I am, and I can't run from it. The pack is my family."
I smile at him.
"I talked to Scott." he continues. "We had a very long conversation. He agreed to let me back in the pack." he says, excitement in his voice.
"I'm glad. You belong here." I tell him.
"Yeah, you were right about that too." he says.
He walks over to me and we embrace in a warm hug.
"I'm glad you're staying." I whisper to him.
"Me too." he whispers back.
He pulls away, just enough so that our eyes meet but he doesn't let go of me. "There are...there are other reasons why I decided to leave the pack. Reasons I didn't tell you. But that's a conversation for another day. With everything going on, it can wait."
I nod. "Ok, well when you're ready, I'll be here. Like I always will be."
"Thank you." he says. "For everything." He kisses my forehead and then we step away from each other. We say goodbye and he walks out and heads home.
He's had a guard up for a long time now, but he finally let it come down.
he's staying and I couldn't be happier