||
Out in the middle of Beacon Hills Preserve, Lydia and Jordan had been wandering for thirty minutes.
"Anything look familiar?" Lydia asked, having handed him the lead.
"Nothing," replied Jordan. "I'm trying, but it all looks like woods to me."
"Maybe you're thinking about it too much. Maybe it's something you need to feel."
The frustration was evident. "How do I do that?"
Lydia's brows rose, a theory growing. The strawberry blonde threw a punch, Jordan catching it immediately.
"What was that for?" he asked, letting go of her hand. He took a step back, anticipating her step forward.
"To get you to stop thinking," she offered.
Jordan dodged another swing. "Oh, is it supposed to motivate me?" he questioned with a grin.
"No." Lydia moved closer. "It's supposed to get you to stop-" She swung hard, catching him off guard with moves he'd taught her, "-thinking!"
An impressed grin crossed Jordan's face as he stood up straight. He raised his hands, egging her on.
Lydia unleashed an arsenal of moves on the cryptid, throwing kicks and punches alike to keep the high ground.
Jordan kept her at bay effectively, finally grabbing Lydia's forearms and keeping her still.
Taking in Lydia's face as he breathed heavily, his eyes burned orange.
It worked.
The deputy's head turned to the left knowingly, the flaming ring leaving his eyes.
Just beyond a row of trees, bodies clustered around a tree stump.
It was the Nemeton, found at much less a cost than had been originally paid for its location.
||
Sheriff Stilinski motioned to his deputy as he stood at the edge of a body covered by a white sheet. "Give the M.E. five minutes, all right?" Standing in the halls of the high school, he found a familiar face in the crowd.
Noah walked to Theo, pulling him from the tow of deputies keeping students at bay. "Come here." He lowered his voice. "Where's Scott?"
"He's looking for Liam. Scott thinks he's with Hayden."
"And Jacy?"
"She's with Scott," Theo replied.
Noah nodded lightly. "All right. I need a word with you." He subtly took Theo's elbow. "Just you."
Theo and Sheriff Stilinski went to the locker room to avoid the crowd of on-lookers in the hallway. Within minutes of slow words delivered by Noah, Theo could no longer meet eyes with the Sheriff.
Theo looked at his shoes, staring at the stitching of his laces as Noah flipped Theo's library card between his fingers. "Am I going to need a lawyer?"
"You tell me," Stilinski simply replied.
Waterworks had slowly arisen over Theo. "Stiles wasn't there."
"But Donovan was. He was a chimera."
"A wendigo," Theo softly said. "He was looking for Stiles. He was going to kill him."
When Theo finally looked to Sheriff Stilinski, Noah had looked away.
"Donovan said that he was going to kill Stiles in front of you," Theo said directly to Noah. "When he saw me there instead, he tried to get me to tell him where Stiles was."
Noah, conflicted in every sense of the word, looked to Theo. "What did you tell him?"
"Nothing." Theo's eyes were red, as if he were recalling that night. "So he came at me. I tried to fight him off, but...All I kept thinking was that I can't let him kill me." Tears choked in his voice. "And I can't let him kill Stiles. I climbed up the scaffolding but he started to drag me down. And then - then these support beams, they slid off the top. When I looked back, one of them had gone right through him." He stammered over his words, false tears brimming in his eyes. "I didn't...I didn't know what to do. I dialed 911, but when the deputy got there, the body was gone. Even the blood. Everything was just...it was gone and I didn't...I didn't know what to do. So I didn't do anything." He stared at the Sheriff with weepy eyes. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what to do so I - I didn't do anything."
"Okay," Noah finally said, pulling Theo into a hug, "okay."
Pressed to the sheriff's chest in a comforting hug, Theo Raeken smiled against Noah's shoulder.
||
"I need to call it in," Parrish said, leading the way back to his SUV. "No, I need to turn myself in."
"I don't think that's such a good idea," Lydia told him, picking up her pace to walk next to him.
"You just told me I'm the one taking the bodies. I've attacked other law enforcement officers. That's a criminal offense! I shouldn't even be near you."
Lydia's eyes nearly rolled. "I'm not afraid of you."
"I'm afraid of me."
"Whatever's happening seems to only happen when there's a body. Other than that you're still a pretty nice guy. And you're a pretty good deputy."
"I'm a very good deputy," Parrish countered. "And I'd like to stay that way. Flipping over Jeeps and attacking colleagues doesn't exactly fit with 'protect and serve.' I'm covering up the bodies of murdered teenagers."
"You're not covering them up," Lydia hastily interrupted before hesitating as they stopped short of the Preserve barrier. "Actually, maybe you are."
"What?"
"It's the same thing we asked Stilinski to do with Tracy. You're not covering up bodies. You're covering up the supernatural."
"What's the difference?" he sharply asked.
"Maybe you're keeping the secret safe. Maybe that's part of what you do."
"I'm a deputy," Jordan stressed.
"You're not just a deputy," she told him. "And you aren't one of the bad guys."
"Lydia, you just showed me that my dream was real. But you haven't heard the rest of it." Jordan looked away for a moment, collecting his thoughts. "Every time I carry a body to the Nemeton, I put it down and...add it to the ones that are already there."
Lydia paused. "How many?"
Jordan looked up, meeting eyes with the banshee. "Hundreds, Lydia. Hundreds of them."
||
"Anything from Lydia?" asked Scott, sitting shotgun in Petunia.
Jacy shook her head lightly, driving above the speed limit through town. "Nothing. She's been silent since the start of school."
"No one's come by the school for Beth," Scott told her.
"Maybe Jordan went for Corey first," she offered with a sigh. "I don't know what to think anymore."
Scott ran his fingers through his hair, jittery. "And you think that Hayden and Liam will be at Sinema?"
"Liam's going to want them to run," said Jacy. "Hayden has money at the club that they can use to leave."
"Running won't help them, will it?"
"No, no the Doctors can find them anywhere. Hayden's one of theirs. It's like a link or a locator." Jacy pulled into the near empty club parking lot. "Yeah, see, there's her car."
"Jacy," Scott hesitantly began, "how do you know that?"
A loud clatter echoed to the wolves as Petunia's engine was shut off, catching their attentions.
"They're already here," Scott said with wide eyes, hastily unbuckling his seatbelt.
Scott and Jacy ran from the Honda up to the back door of the club's loading dock and barreled inside.
Scott shifted in an instant when he saw one of the Doctors throw Liam across the strobe-lit dance floor.
Jacy ran to Hayden as Scott and Liam fought two of three present Doctors with all they had, pulling her into a hug. "Are you okay?"she asked, an arm around Hayden. "Have they touched you?"
"No, no they just showed up." Hayden's eyes followed the fight outlined by one of the many clip videos playing on the wall length projector screen. "Are they going to kill me?"
"No." Jacy's eyes took in the scene in front of them. "I'm going to pull Liam, okay? I want you two to get out of here. Find Allison or Stiles. Find Chris Argent. Get the hell out of here, okay?"
Hayden nodded nervously. "Okay."
Jacy jumped over the bar as Scott was laid out unconscious on the floor, leaping onto the back of the Surgeon with burning fury.
The Doctor flipped over Jacy's head, crashing onto his back next to Liam.
"Go!" Jacy shouted at the sophomore, purple eyes not leaving the mask of the Surgeon as she punched him in the throat. "He needs more time," Jacy said lowly through gritted teeth, looking over to Scott knocked out on the floor. Her shift was still on, her words coming through bared fangs.
A scream filled the air from the room behind them.
"Until the Perigee-syzygy," the Surgeon replied. "Perigee-syzygy." He hoisted Jacy up, throwing her onto the ground.
The unsettling light distortion returned to normal as the Doctor disappeared, leaving a defeated Scott and Jacy behind.
"Where's Hayden?" Scott sharply asked, propping himself up.
Jacy and Scott clambered up from the floor, hastily following Liam's scent.
Hayden, surprisingly not dead, was leaned against a wall in the back room, Liam close by for support.
"What happened?" Scott asked as they reached the sophomores.
"I'm okay," Hayden said for herself. "Really, I think I'm okay."
Liam hesitated before walking back to Jacy and Scott. "I saw the needle go in her neck, okay, and her eyes just filled up with mercury. They turned completely silver."
"She looks okay," offered Jacy with a wince. "Maybe she'll heal."
"Or maybe she won't," Scott countered.
"What if something's happening to her on the inside?" questioned Liam.
Jacy's phone rang, pulling her attention. She answered the call, Lydia's contact blaring across the top. "Hey, finally."
"J, I need you to come to the station. Your brother's locked himself in a cell."
"Jesus - okay, I'll be there." As Jacy hung up, she picked up on the conversation about going to the animal clinic. "Scott, take them in Hayden's car. Call Theo. I'll meet you there if I can, but Jordan just put everyone at the station at risk."
"Risk?"
"If he can't get out to get the bodies, he'll set the whole place on fire."
||
"Lydia," Sheriff Stilinski asked, approaching the senior in the station, "what does he think he's doing?"
"He thinks he's protecting us," she told him.
The Sheriff's brows furrowed. "Protecting us from what?"
"From himself."
"This is ridiculous." Noah left Lydia's side, booking it to the drunk tank. He pulled out his key card, walking up to the access panel on the cell door.
"No!" Jordan jumped up from the bench, an outstretched hand warding him off. "It makes sense why you kept me at my desk for six months."
Stilinski glanced behind him before stepping in front of his deputy. Lowering his voice, he said, "Parrish, we can't keep you in here."
"There's another body, right?" asked Jordan.
Stilinski hesitated. "Two, actually."
Jordan stepped back, sighing. "I'm the one taking them. I...I don't know why, and I definitely don't remember doing it. But if it really was me at the morgue, then I'm dangerous. Okay? You can't let me out, Sheriff." He turned around. "You can't."
"Jordan."
Parrish looked over his shoulder at the sound of his little sister's voice.
"Jacy," the sheriff cautiously said, holding out a hand.
"I'm not scared of my brother, Sheriff," she said in reply, stepping up to the cell bars.
Noah hesitantly backed up, tucking his key card away as he left the siblings alone.
"Jacy, you don't need to be here," he told her. "You shouldn't be here."
"J, you shouldn't be here," Jacy said in reply. "When you go get the bodies, you'll get through anything in your way. Including these bars. Including the deputies that will try and stop you when you inevitably break out."
"How do you know that?"
"You flipped Stiles' Jeep because they were guarding a chimera. I know we're at a loss for what you are, but you're strong. Probably stronger than Scott and I."
"Jace, I love you, but I'm not leaving. Go home. Make Lydia go home, too," he told her. "I'm safer here than on the loose."
"If Hayden wasn't dying, I'd pull your ass right out of here. I hope you know what you're doing." Jacy backed up from the cell bars, leaving her brother behind and exiting the station.
The Honda took Jacy across town through the pouring rain to the animal clinic, Scott's bike, Theo's truck, Hayden's car and Stiles' Jeep all sitting outside.
Only one owner, however, was present as Jacy climbed out of Petunia.
"Stiles?" Jacy shielded her eyes as she slowly approached her boyfriend.
The only Stilinski boy turned over his shoulder, drenched entirely and holding a wrench.
"Did Scott call you?"
"No," he hastily said, "I'm on my way out."
Jacy's brows furrowed as Stiles started to open the driver's door of the Jeep, unable to meet eyes with her. "What's wrong?"
"Everything, Jace," he hummed. "Everything's wrong. I gotta go."
"Hey, hey," Jacy grabbed the door as he climbed into the driver's seat. "We don't do this. What's wrong?"
"We don't normally do lots of things, but everything's changed. And everything's wrong." Stiles pulled the door shut, firing up the nearly deceased Jeep. He didn't meet eyes with Jacy as he backed out of the parking lot, leaving her alone in the rain.
Everything's changed and everything's wrong.