The next morning before school, Scott, Stiles, Annie, and Katarina were "casually" waiting in the library for Allison, who had gone over to Lydia's after Melissa took Kat to the police station. She had cashed in on her hour to talk and even got her to translate more of the bestiary.
The group was standing in an aisle hidden from the new security camera (Principal Gerard Argent had installed security cameras all around the school to keep an eye on everyone). Stiles was pretending to read a book, trying to look as unsuspicious as possible, while Annie and Kat were quietly flipping through another one of Bernadette Paulson's journals. Just as they had found an entire entry about her powers, Allison came up on the other side of the shelf, handing Scott a tablet through an opening in the books.
"It's everything Lydia could translate," she started as Scott turned on the tablet and started reading the translations. "And, trust me, she was very confused."
"Yeah, what'd you tell her?" Scott whispered, looking up at Allison. Kat stood up on her toes to peer over Stiles's shoulder and read the tablet.
"That we were part of an online gaming community that battles mythical creatures," Allison said, her words underlined with a slight chuckle.
Stiles stared at her. "I am part of an online gaming community that battles mythical creatures."
Kat grinned up at her boyfriend, trying her hardest not to laugh. She vaguely remembered the game, thinking it was called World of Warcraft. They used to play it every day after school in fifth grade. She couldn't believe he still played it.
"O-oh," Allison said. "Great."
Annie turned the conversation back to the bestiary and its translations. "Okay. Does it say how to find out who's controlling Jackson?"
"Not really." Allison shook her head, "But Stiles was right about the murderers."
"Yes!" Stiles cheered, pumping his fist and accidentally elbowing Kat in the shoulder. He whirled around and grabbed her shoulder, mumbling out apologies. Kat grumbled and shrugged his hand off, grabbing it with her own hand and squeezing it to reassure him that he hadn't hurt her.
Kat turned back to Allison, "What else does it say?"
"It calls the kanima a weapon of vengeance. There's a story in there about this South American priest who uses the kanima to execute the murderers in his village."
Annie nodded, "Alright, see? Maybe it's not all bad."
Allison continued, "Until the bond grew strong enough that it killed whoever he wanted it to." She pulled a random book from the shelf and opened it, carelessly shuffling through it.
Stiles's mouth dropped at her words. "All bad, all very, very bad."
"Here's the thing, though." Allison said, "The kanima's actually supposed to be a werewolf, but it can't be . . . "
She paused so the librarian wouldn't hear the worst part of the conversation as she put away a book. Kat finished, reading the translation over Stiles's shoulder. "'Until it resolves that in its past which manifested it'."
"Okay, if that means that Jackson could use a few thousand hours of therapy, I could've told you that myself." Stiles sarcastically said.
Allison was already trying to piece together something in his past that caused him to become the kanima instead of a werewolf. "What if . . . it has something to do with his parents?"
"You mean his real parents?" Kat asked. Allison nodded.
"Yeah, does anybody actually know what happened to them?" Scott questioned.
"Lydia might." Annie supplied, shrugging slightly.
Scott was skeptical. "What if she doesn't know anything?"
"Well, he doesn't have a restraining order against me or Annie, so we could talk to him ourselves," Allison suggested, putting the book back on the shelf.
"Okay, what do I do?" Scott asked.
"You have a make-up exam, Scotty," Kat answered. He looked back down at her as if she shouldn't have said that. Stiles and Kat gave him the same look, as if to say "suck it up, dude". Allison grabbed Scott's hand, which was rested on the bookshelf, earning his attention.
"If he does anything, you run the other way." Scott insisted, looking directly into Allison's eyes.
Allison's face hardened slightly. "I can take care of myself."
"Allison, if you get hurt while I'm busy with some stupid test, someone's going to need to take care of me," Scott said.
"Uh, we're right here, Scott." Kat sarcastically said, scoffing and rolling her eyes as she motioned to Annie and herself and held up hers and Stiles's still interlocked hands.
Scott ignored her. "If he does anything . . . "
"Like?" Allison pushed, slightly tired of his protectiveness.
"Anything weird, bizarre, anything -- "
Almost as if he were mocking him, Stiles leaned forward through the bookshelf and said, "Anything evil!"
Allison sighed and pushed him back through the shelf. He made a slight noise of pain as he tried to keep a hold of the book still in his hands. She turned back to Scott. "I'll be fine, Scott. Now, go take your test."
--
Katarina and Stiles searched for Lydia during their free period, finally finding her helping a classmate in a nearly empty science classroom. Kat came up to her side and sat down, plastering a large grin on her face. Lydia took one look at her and sighed, rolling her eyes and standing up.
"I'll see you later, Tracy." Lydia gathered her books into her bag and started leaving the classroom, giving Kat and Stiles a look that told them to follow her. "What do you want, Kat?"
"Why would you assume that I'd want something?" Kat cluelessly asked, fighting the urge to laugh at the look Lydia gave her.
Stiles cut right to the chase. "We want to know if you know anything about Jackson's real parents."
Lydia hummed, leading the couple out of the classroom and into the busy hallway, "I'm not supposed to tell anyone."
"Come on," Stiles started, "Anyone who ever says, "I'm not supposed to tell anyone," is dying to tell someone."
"So tell us!" Kat encouraged, hoping that Lydia wasn't in the mood to mess with them today.
"Why do you guys want to know?" Lydia questioned, sparing Kat a brief glance.
Kat and Stiles shared a quick look, trying to decide what to say. Kat spoke, "We can't tell you that."
Lydia stopped, looking at Kat with annoyance, before strutting down the hall once more. "Then I'm not telling you."
"But you are telling us that if you could tell us something if you wanted to tell us something," Stiles said, making his sentence sound like a question.
"Was that a question?" Lydia asked.
"It felt like a question," Stiles mumbled, slowing his steps slightly as he tried to figure out what he just said.
Lydia chuckled, "Well, tell me if this feels like an answer," she paused, glancing back at the couple, "No."
"Ah, come on, Lyds!" Kat exasperatedly whined, grabbing Stiles's hand and quickening her pace after Lydia. They followed her through the school, shouting after her. Kat couldn't believe how fast she was in six-inch heels.
They came up a flight of stairs, caught behind a few slow walkers, with Stiles yelling after her and telling her to wait. "Lydia! Come on, Lydia. Wait -- Ow! Ah, ah, hey, Erica."
Erica had come flying down the flight of stairs to their left, putting her hand flat onto Stiles's chest and pushing him into the wall. Kat stumbled after them, supporting her weight on Stiles's shoulder as she regained her balance.
"Why are you asking Lydia about Jackson's real parents?" She spit, flashing her yellow beta eyes at Kat and growing her claws on the hand that was still on Stiles's chest.
"Why are you bringing out the claws on camera?" Stiles responded, motioning behind her to the security camera overlooking the hallway. The blond glanced back at it before sliding her hand off of him and retracting her claws.
"And put the eyes away, too. You're not intimidating anyone." Kat said, sarcastically raising a brow at the werewolf. Erica glared at her before shifting her eyes back to their normal brown.
Stiles grinned, "That's right. You wanna play Catwoman? We're your Batman and Robin." Stiles tightened his grip on Kat's hand and slipped away from Erica, pulling Kat along. They made it up to stairs before Erica spoke again.
"If you're wondering about Jackson's real parents, they're about half a mile from here." Kat and Stiles stopped, looking at her with slightly bewildered expressions. Would she actually be willing to give up information so easily? "In Beacon Hills Cemetery."
No, she wouldn't. At least, not as much as they had hoped.
Erica smirked and started walking down the hallway, leaving the couple with that information. Stiles looked at Kat, almost pleadingly. "C'mon, we have to know."
Kat hesitated, letting her feelings towards Erica cloud her better judgment. She knew they had to, but why did it have to be from her? "Stiles, I don't kn -- "
"Kat, you were the one that said we have to help Jackson, no matter what he's done in the past." Stiles pointed out.
"Why do you actually listen to what I say?" Kat groaned, quickly running down the hallway after Erica with Stiles in tow. "Hey, were-bitch, wait up!"
Erica's steps slowed and Kat and Stiles quickly came up to her sides. Stiles asked the first question, "Do you know how they died?"
"Maybe." She started. "If you tell me why you're so interested." Kat and Stiles glanced at one another, once again becoming quiet and keeping their reasons to themselves. Erica suddenly stopped, "It's him, isn't it?"
"What?" Kat choked out at the same time Stiles asked, "Who? Him who?"
Erica started walking again. "The test didn't work, but it's still him." She scoffed. "It's Jackson."
Stiles and Kat stood in the middle of the hallway, completely shocked, before coming to their senses and running after her. They rounded the corner to the boys' locker room, trying to convince Erica to keep her knowledge to herself.
"You can't tell Derek, okay?" Stiles said. "There's a lot more to this that you don't know about."
Kat started in, "And just because you got the alpha-bite makeover doesn't give you a license to go around destroying people."
Erica rounded on them, "Why not? That's all anybody ever used to do to me." She paused, looking at Stiles. "I used to have the worst crush in the world on you, Stiles. Yeah, you, Stiles. And you never once noticed me."
"Um, Stiles's girlfriend, right here," Kat said, raising her hand and pointing at herself. Erica shot her a glare before continuing.
"Exactly how you're not noticing me right now."
Kat looked up at Stiles, finding that his attention was on the floor behind Erica. She furrowed her brow and followed his gaze, finding a large puddle of water slowly forming in the hallway from under the locker room door.
Just as Kat went to make a comment, the door suddenly burst open and Scott was thrown onto the floor. Jackson immediately followed, leaning down over Scott and grabbing his shirt collar. Kat, Stiles, and Erica jumped down on them and started pulling them apart. Erica restrained Jackson, holding him in a choke-hold on the other side of the hallway while Kat and Stiles grabbed Scott's arms and held him back in the doorway of the locker room.
Allison and Annie came out of the locker room, helping Kat and Stiles restrain Scott. Mr. Harris came bounding down the hallway, shouting, "What the hell's going on? Hey! Enough! Enough."
Finally, Scott and Jackson calmed down and were standing on either side of the hallway, glaring at each other. Mr. Harris started scolding them, "What do you idiots think you're doing? Jackson! Calm down!" He paused, making sure everyone was calm enough to explain. "Mr. McCall? You wanna explain yourself? Stilinski?"
"You dropped this." An unfamiliar voice said, earning everyone's attention. Matt Daehler, number eight on the lacrosse team and the owner of the camera containing photos of Allison, stood behind Mr. Harris, holding Allison's tablet out to Scott. Kat's brows furrowed. Where did he come from?
Mr. Harris snatched the tablet from Matt, using it to point at Jackson and Scott as he spoke, "You, and you -- " he paused, examining everyone gathered in front of the locker room, which included Allison, Annie, Kat, Stiles, Erica, and Matt, "Actually, all of you. Detention, three o'clock."
--
One by one, the group involved in the "locker room brawl", as it had become known around school, filed into the library at exactly three o'clock. Scott and Stiles sat at the first table, followed by Annie and Erica. Katarina grumbled, grabbing a chair and pulling it up beside her brother. Jackson, Allison, and Matt sat at the table behind theirs.
"Uh," Jackson smugly started, "We can't be in detention together," he pointed to Scott, Stiles, and Kat. "I have a restraining order against those tools."
"All of those tools?" Mr. Harris asked.
"No, just us tools," Stiles said, motioning to his girlfriend and best friend as well as himself.
"Fine." Mr. Harris sighed, "You three, over there."
Mr. Harris pointed to the table beside the one they were sitting at, and together they gathered their belongings and moved to sit at the indicated table. Scott sat on one side while Kat and Stiles sat across from him. As soon as Mr. Harris was out of hearing range, Scott turned to his sister and friend, returning to his topic of anger as he lowly said, "I'm gonna kill him."
"No, you're not," Stiles said. "You're going to find out who's controlling him and then you're gonna help save him."
Scott glanced back at Jackson before whipping his head back around to Kat and Stiles. "No, you're right. Let's kill him."
"Oh, no, Scotty," Kat sighed, running a hand through her hair. She brought a knee up to her chest and placed her foot on the chair, resting her hands on her knee and her cheek on her fingers. Matt and Allison were in her direct line of sight. Matt was on his tablet, reading something. Allison looked over at his tablet, her brows furrowing. She glanced up at Kat, who mouthed, "What?"
"He has the bestiary." Allison mouthed back.
Kat sat up straight suddenly, her foot dropping back to the floor and her eyes wide. "Are you kidding? How?" She asked, trying her hardest to not make a sound. Allison shrugged in response.
"Hey, what if it's Matt?" Stiles suddenly asked, looking between Kat and Scott. "I mean, this whole thing comes back to the video, right?"
Kat looked back at Stiles and Scott as her brother spoke. "Danny said that Matt was the one who found the two hours of footage missing."
"Exactly!" Stiles said. "He's trying to throw suspicion off himself."
The group looked over at him, watching him eat organically popped popcorn. Kat couldn't picture it. She hummed, almost disapprovingly. "So, he makes Jackson kill Isaac's dad, one of Argent's hunters, and the mechanic working on Roscoe?"
"Yes!" Stiles said.
"Why?" Kat and Scott asked at the same time.
"Because . . . " Stiles paused, trying to find an explanation. "He's evil."
They looked over at Matt again, and this time he glanced back at them, wearily continuing to eat his popcorn. Scott sighed. "You just don't like him."
"The guy . . . " He paused again. "Bugs me. And he stares at our girlfriends all the time, Scott."
Despite blushing at the way Stiles said "our girlfriends," Kat couldn't help but think of the pictures of Allison and herself on Matt's camera. They looked like candids, but not like one that was cool, or like a friend taking a picture of a friend. To Kat, it looked like one of those creepy shots from a documentary about a stalker. Chills ran down her spine, worse than when she first saw them. She nodded, "That explains the pictures on his camera."
"What pictures?" Stiles asked, looking at her with concern and curiosity.
"The night at the pools, when we ran out of players to put in, Matt was talking to Melissa when I found him. I took his camera so he could play, and there were a lot of shots of Allison and I on it." Kat quietly said, her eyes still locked on Matt. The more she looked at him, the weirder she felt about him.
"I'm gonna kill him," Stiles said just as Scott sighed, shook his head, and boredly stated, "He takes candids of people all the time. Any other theories?"
Just then, Jackson started gasping and grabbing his head in his hand. He stood up, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. Matt asked if he was okay, earning the attention of everyone in the library.
"I have to go to the bathroom," Jackson told Mr. Harris, quickly heading towards the entrance of the library.
"Are you alright?" Mr. Harris asked, standing up from his seat at the main desk. "Hey, you don't look so good."
"I just need to get some water." Jackson insisted. Everyone watched him leave.
Mr. Harris addressed the rest of the students, "No one leaves their seats." With that, he followed Jackson out of the library. As soon as the door closed, Kat, Stiles, and Scott stood up and moved back to their original table.
Scott skipped any small talk and spoke directly to Erica, "Stiles says you know how Jackson's parents died."
"Maybe." She casually answered. Kat rolled her eyes.
"Talk, were-bitch," Kat said.
"Does she have to be here?" Erica asked, pointing to Kat.
"Talk," Scott repeated.
Erica glared at Kat before closing her journal and placing it on her laptop. "It was a car accident. My dad was the insurance investigator, and every time he sees Jackson drive by in his Porsche, he makes some comment about the huge settlement he'll be getting when he's eighteen."
"So, not only is Jackson rich now, he'll be getting ever richer at eighteen?" Stiles asked, disbelief in his voice.
"Yep," Erica clarified.
"There's something so deeply wrong with that." Stiles sarcastically said, shaking his head.
The group was silent until Erica suddenly said, "You know what? I could try to find the insurance report in my dad's inbox. He keeps everything." She opened her laptop and started typing.
The P.A. system suddenly crackled to life. "Scott McCall, please report to the principal's office."
Kat shot her brother a look that asked him what he had done, and he shrugged in response as he stood up, gathered his belongings, and left the library. Kat moved into his seat beside Stiles and waited for Erica to find the report.
After a few minutes, she finally found it and swiveled her laptop around so it faced Kat and Stiles. Annie stood up and crouched between the couple, reading the report with them. Suddenly, Jackson and Mr. Harris came back into the library. Jackson took his original seat, slouching in it and crossing his arms over his chest.
Stiles suddenly said, "Don't forget the dates."
Kat glanced at him before opening another file. She highlighted a row of text with the cursor as she read it, "The passengers arrived at the hospital D.O.A. Their estimate time of death 9:26 pm June fourteenth, 1995."
"Jackson's birthday is June fifteenth," Stiles said. The girls around him glanced up in shock and slight worry. At the main desk, Mr. Harris started zipping up his messenger bag. Each student glanced at each other before grabbing their own bags and standing up.
Mr. Harris stepped around the desk, chuckling. "Oh, no, I'm sorry. Uh, yes, I'm leaving, but none of you are. You may go when you are done with the re-shelving. Enjoy the rest of your evening."
He patted the stack of books on one of the many carts around him before turning and leaving the library. After a few minutes, Scott came back into the library and everyone started re-shelving. The McCall siblings, Stiles, Annie, and Allison were huddled into an aisle, just like they were that morning.
"Did you guys find anything in the report?" Scott asked, carelessly placing a book on the shelf beside him.
"Jackson's parents died on the fourteenth of July but his birthday is the fifteenth," Kat said, looking at the spine of a book and placing it accordingly.
"Wait, what does that mean?" Allison asked, not bothering with the books they were supposed to be reshelving.
Stiles answered the question, "It means he was born after his mom died -- by c-section. They had to pull him out of her dead body."
Allison asked another question, "So was it an accident or not?"
"The word all over the report is 'inconclusive'." Annie sighed.
"Then his parents could have been murdered?" Scott questioned.
"If they were, then it falls in line with the kanima myth," Stiles said as a form of an answer. "You know, it seeks out and kills murderers."
"But for Jackson?" Kat suddenly asked, bringing up another angle of the problem. "Or for whoever's controlling him?"
Scott started moving around his sister, "We have to talk to him. We have to tell him."
"He's not gonna l -- " Allison tried, but Scott was already out of the aisle and heading for Jackson. Kat huffed and followed Scott, ramming into his back when he stopped short of the aisle Jackson and Matt were in.
"Scott, what're you -- " Kat moved around him, looking into the aisle. She cut herself off, finding Matt on the floor with a cut on the back of his neck. Scott quickly knelt beside him, but as soon as he did, electricity started crackling through the air and books started falling off the shelves. Something wrapped around Kat's ankle and yanked her to the floor. She groaned as she smacked her head on a nearby cart. Her vision became black but she could hear still everything. She heard Scott yell at Erica, she heard a roar in response, and then more electricity. She heard things tumbling to the ground, screams and hissing, something being turned over.
Her vision started to return and she saw Jackson standing over her. Half of his face was covered in a scaley patter, his eyes were yellow with slitted pupils, and his teeth had sharpened to points. He roared and threw Scott back into a cart. Suddenly, her arms were grabbed and she was being pulled into an aisle. Annie held her against her chest as she, Scott, Stiles, and Allison stared up at Jackson, who was now standing in front of a chalkboard in a trance.
In horror, the group watched as he rose a hand and started writing on the chalkboard. He dropped his hand and his head fell forward like a ragdoll. The board read, Stay out of my way or I'll kill all of you. Jackson suddenly leaped out of one of the windows, leaving the library in silence.
The group stood up, trying to make sense of what just happened as they looked around the library. Scott and Allison stepped closer to the chalkboard, but Annie was heading straight for Erica. Kat looked at her in confusion but understood when she saw Erica spazzing and shaking on the floor.
"Woah, hey, hey, hey!" Kat panicked, following Annie kneeling beside Erica. Annie grabbed Erica's shoulders and pulled her up to her chest, making sure she didn't hurt herself as she seized. Everyone looked at the pair, alarmed.
"I think she's having a seizure," Annie said, her voice somehow calm. Scott and Stiles made their way to the girls while Allison went to Matt, who was still lying on the floor paralyzed.
"He's alive," she said, turning him over onto his back.
"Okay, well, we need to get her to the hospital," Stiles said, motioning to Erica.
"Derek -- only to Derek." Erica sputtered, gripping on Annie's bicep as hard as she could.
Scott disregarded her, turning to Allison, "When we get her to the hospital -- "
"To Derek." Annie suddenly said. Scott looked at her in disbelief. "To Derek. He's her alpha, she needs to go to Derek."
"Go," Allison said. Scott suddenly stood up and moved into the next aisle, kneeling in front of Allison.
"Scott!" Kat said, cursing slightly and turning back to Annie. She was struggling to keep a hold on Erica.
"I'm staying here with you," Scott told Allison.
"No." Kat cut in, "I will. Scott, go with Annie and Stiles. Allison and I should handle this."
"We've got to call an ambulance for Matt, just go -- "
Scott cut off Allison, "This doesn't feel right."
"I second that," Stiles said.
Kat let Allison convince Scott while she turned to Stiles. "It's okay." Stiles started to disagree, but Kat didn't let him finish. "Stiles, it doesn't mean anything. He's hurt, she needs Derek. That's all it is. Go. I'll be okay."
Stiles looked at her, slightly shocked. He nodded, whispering, "Okay." He moved forward and kissed her, securely holding her face before letting go and standing up. "Scott, Annie, let's go."
Annie stood up, carrying Erica bridal style and started leaving the library with Scott and Stiles hot on her heels. Kat watched them leave before joining Allison with Matt. She pulled out her phone and dialed 911.
"911, what's your emergency?"
"We need an ambulance at Beacon Hills High School. Hurry."