Scott and Tessa sat in the hospital waiting room as they waited for news on Melissa. Scott had his hearing tuned to everything going on with his mom, but was saying nothing to Tessa.
The bullet had been removed from Tessa's leg and she'd insisted on joining her cousin's side.
Malia walked towards them and placed a hand over Scott's clenched hands.
Scott glanced at Tessa and they walked into Melissa's room.
The nurse said, "You have about a minute before the sedative kicks in. And let her rest."
Scott grabbed his cousin's hand. They walked to Melissa's bedside. She was pale and looked exhausted, but smiled. "Hey, kids."
Scott looked at his mom and said, "We're gonna wait outside, okay?"
Melissa shook her head and answered in a shaky voice. "No, wait, Scott. Wait. Listen to me. You didn't do this. You didn't either, Tessa."
Scott sighed. "But I'm responsible. You need to sleep."
"I just need to... tell you..."
"It can wait. It can wait. Mom..."
Melissa's breaths sounded heavier as she started drifting off to sleep. "Don't run. You fight."
Scott placed a hand on his mom's head and placed his head to hers. He kissed her forehead. Tessa stroked her aunt's hair back.
Melissa's eyes closed and Tessa followed Scott to his dad's room and they found the bed empty.
"Where's my dad?" Scott demanded.
"Transferred to San Francisco Memorial," the sheriff replied. "He's gonna be fine."
Scott nodded. "Okay. And what about Mason?"
"Already out of surgery."
"Lydia?"
"She's all right, too. Bullet missed everything that matters, thank God. Scott, Tessa, we almost died. Tessa, are you okay?"
The demigoddess nodded. "My leg hurts, but I'll live."
Scott pursed his lips. "They almost died."
"But they're gonna live," the sheriff replied. "We're gonna have two deputies posted here around the clock. Nobody sets foot on this floor without my authorization. Scott. I got a pretty good idea how you're feeling right now. But the whole sheriff's department is gonna be on this. I am gonna find out who did this."
"We all know who did this."
Scott and Tessa walked through the halls and Malia caught up with them. "Hey. What do we do?"
Scott sighed. "No more peace summits. No more warning. No more half measures."
"What's the plan?"
"We fight back," Tessa answered.
"I'm good with that plan."
"And Gerard? Monroe? The hunters? We take them all."
"Then we're gonna need more firepower."
Scott shook his head. "Not just firepower. We're gonna need an army."
Scott, Tessa and Malia made their way back to his house to see Deucalion walk in, glass crunching between his feet. "You know my fighting days are over."
Malia glared at him. "That's hard to believe."
"You once said you'd kill any living thing that got in your way," Scott said.
Deucalion sighed. "I said a lot of things. But eventually, the bodies pile up so high that even a blind man can't ignore them."
"So what? You moved into a case and took a vow of uselessness?" Malia asked sarcastically.
Deucalion met her eyes. "I changed. We should all try it. And I live in a condo."
"I liked the old Deucalion better."
Tessa frowned. "I didn't."
Scott thought a moment. "Well, maybe you've changed, but Gerard hasn't. And he's not gonna stop with Beacon Hills. He's got a map with places circled. Toulouse, Brasilia..."
"Logashkino, Zhengzhou," Deucalion finished. "Nemetons of the world."
Scott narrowed his eyes. "You know him. You can outthink him, you can read him."
"You've beaten him before."
"Well, he has a lot of help now. He's got basically everyone."
Deucalion rolled his eyes. "You think Gerard's turned you into a pariah? Your power does that. You'll always be an outsider because of your abilities. Gerard wasn't the first person to capitalize on the general public's fear of the other and he won't be the last."
"So help us stop him."
"I think you've realized that stopping Gerard now means killing him. I'm sorry, Scott, that chapter in my life's over."
Malia stepped closer to Deucalion. "So that's it? You're just a pacifist now? What's gonna stop me from slashing your throat?"
"Plenty."
Malia growled and attacked him, but he dodged her attack. "How'd you do that?"
"It's Bagua. A martial art that takes the path of least resistance."
"You think you're going to beat me without fighting?"
"I think you're going to beat yourself."
Scott and Tessa motioned for Malia to use her claws and she did so. She reached to cut Deucalion, but he spun around and moved to the side, making her miss him. He used his left hand and pushed her on her back. She fell to the ground, groaning in pain.
Malia let out a defeated nod. "Okay, you can protect yourself. But what about everyone else who doesn't know Bagua? They're just gonna get their eyes stabbed out?"
"Look what war turned me into. Your demigod friend is a warrior; a fighter. I'm not afraid to lose my eyes again. I'm afraid to lose my soul." He moved closer to the door.
"You won't help us?"
"I didn't say I wouldn't help you. I can offer your guidance. And my first piece of advice? You might need guidance to lower your standards for allies."
Scott frowned. "I thought I was."
"Lower than me."
"No," Tessa argued. "Not him."
Malia, Tessa and Scott made their way to Eichen House.
"Why did he want to meet us here?" Scott wondered.
"Why did he agree to meet at all?" Malia asked.
"Curiosity. Mostly," Peter said from the gate he was leaning on. "Tessa, cut the glare."
Scott sighed. "Okay, I need your help."
Peter frowned. "With what? Another suicide mission? Not interested." He turned to Malia. "Or do you need my help?"
Malia shook her head. "I'm here for moral support."
"For him, her or me?"
Scott spoke again. "You helped us fight the Ghost Riders."
"Self-preservation."
"But we couldn't have won without you. You're stronger than all of us. You were the real reason the Wild Hunt..."
Peter held a hand up. "Stop. A solid effort, you don't need to appeal to my ego. It's quite unhealthy. You're gonna need to work a lot harder than that if you want my help."
Scott and Tessa crossed their arms. "What do you want?"
Peter walked closer to them. "Everything is pretty much the way I want it. My penthouse apartment is filled with mid-century furniture. My passport has more stamps than the post office. And did you see that car parked out front? That's a Shelby 1,000 Cobra. There are only two in the entire world. I have two. Two."
"Gerard has an army," Scott reminded him. "And every single one of them is looking for your head."
"And you think that means I'm going to enlist in your little endeavor. Because you're going to defeat Gerard? You and Tessa aren't going to beat him, Scott. And let me show you why." He pulled a lever, revealing a hunter in the cell next to them holding a gun in front of him. "When I found him, that was pointed at my face. That is a G36, which fires 750 rounds per minute. And it's empty. For the moment." He pulled a magazine from his pocket and slid it through the slit in the door.
"Peter, wait," Scott said, trying to stop the former alpha.
"What the hell are you doing?" Malia asked.
"That homicidal guinea pig is gonna kill all of us unless you do what's necessary, and I don't feel like dying today," Peter replied, plugging his ears.
The hunter began firing at the teens before pausing to reload.
"There's something wrong with him," Scott said.
Peter nodded. "Yes, he's shooting at us. If you can't even kill him, how do you expect to win this war?"
Scott frowned and Tessa glared at the former alpha.
The gun clicked and bullets stopped flying. Peter sent the hunter a smile. "Don't worry. It's just jammed. It tends to happen with automatic weapons that haven't been serviced recently. Just slide the bolt back."
The hunter nodded and did so. "Thanks." The firing resumed.
"We're not going to hurt you," Scott told the hunter.
Peter shook his head as the gunfire went on. "He can't be reasoned with, Scott. He's not shooting at us because he's afraid. He's trying to kill us because he hates us."
The hunter jumped forward and flew through the broken window caused by his bullets.
Scott grabbed his gun and they began wrestling as he asked, "Why are you doing this?"
"Because she wants you dead," the hunter said.
Peter smirked. "See? Blind obedience."
Scott shot him a look and slammed the hunter against the wall, instantly knocking him out.
Peter stared at the hunter. "Hmm. He never gave up. I would fight with him. I like him. That's how you win a war."
Malia glared. "You were never going to help us, were you?"
"Peter never does anything that doesn't benefit him," Scott said.
Peter frowned at Scott. "One day you'll learn you can't save everyone."
"We can try." Scott narrowed his eyes. "Yeah. And you can't kill everyone, Peter. Look, you can fight with us or fight alone, but one way or another, you'll end up fighting."
"I'm guessing it's going to be alone," Malia said.
They walked away and Peter yelled after them, "You made it this far without getting your hands dirty, Scott. No one makes it this far through a war with clean hands. Something I'm sure Tessa understands. If you won't start killing... You better find someone who will."
The teens made their way back to Scott's and Malia walked in and said, "There's something else we can try. But you're not gonna like it."
"What?" Scott and Tessa asked.
"There's another pack of werewolves I know about. They gave up everything that makes them human. Rules, morals. Electricity."
Scott nodded. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've heard of this pack. They call themselves The Primal. Their pack symbol is a circle with a crescent on top."
"They're strong."
Scott frowned. "They're not only strong, they'll kill anything that crosses their path."
"Are they worse than Deucalion and Peter?"
Scott shrugged. "I mean, at least I know Deucalion and Peter. This pack, I, I don't know anything about them."
"Does it matter if they can help us beat Gerard?"
"It matters if they're murderers."
Tessa turned to her cousin. "Need I remind you Gerard has murdered hundreds of our kind, Scott. We can end it all right here, right now."
Scott glared and Malia sighed. "So we should just probably ignore it."
Tessa shot Malia a look as Scott said, "Probably."
"There's got to be someone who can help us."
Scott shook his head. "We're not that desperate."
"And going to them would be really desperate, right?"
Tessa fell asleep and woke up from a dream about a Hellhound telling her to go to the woods.
They trekked through the woods. They were searching for the Primal Pack compound. Scott and Malia suddenly felt terrified.
Tessa's eyes widened, seeing both Annabeth and Stiles being killed in front of her. "What's wrong with this place?" she whispered.
"I feel it too," Scott said. "And it seems Tessa does too."
"It's the Anuk-Ite," Malia realized, trying to leave.
Scott grabbed Malia's hand and said, "We came for the pack. You two okay?"
Tessa and Malia nodded as Scott pushed back a curtain. They walked into a bedroom and in a secluded area, saw numerous bodies with their eyes burned out. They heard a loud clanging sound and jumped.
"What was that?" Malia asked furiously.
They turned and Scott shone a flashlight on Lydia, still in her hospital gown. "What are you doing here? How did you get here?"
"He led me," Lydia answered, shaking. "He wanted me to find it."
Tessa draped her sweater around Lydia's shoulders and said, "I had a dream. Who led you?"
"Halwyn."
They walked through the woods and Malia frowned. "Why would a dead Hellhound bring you two here? Also, isn't he dead?"
Lydia shrugged. "I guess the connection between a demigod through dreams, Banshee and a Hellhound..."
"Dead Hellhound?" Malia interrupted, earning a look from Tessa.
"...Is stronger than I thought. As for the why, I'm hoping if I find the body, I'll figure that part out."
Scott glanced between them. "You know, there's a pile of dead bodies back there."
"It's a different body," Lydia said.
Malia frowned. "There's not a body out here. I'd smell it."
Lydia glanced at her. "I'm a harbinger of death. Trust me."
They followed Lydia and Tessa to a skinless bloody lump covered in leaves.
Malia frowned. "How is this possible? We saw Parrish kill it."
Lydia knelt next to the body and Tessa stood over it as they said in sync, "This one's different."
Scott nodded. "Yeah. I think Lydia and Tessa are right. I think this is part of the pack."
"How do you know?" Lydia wondered.
Tessa noticed a tattoo on the person's arm and knelt for a closer look. "This looks like a pack symbol."
Lydia nodded and said, "Its skin is gone."
The blonde looked up at her cousin. "Don't wolves have to burn tattoos into their skin?"
He nodded and looked between his cousin and friends. "My tattoo is probably scarred into my muscles, too."
Malia shrugged. "Okay, but why are there two of these bodies?"
Lydia's eyes widened. "Because the Anuk-Ite has two faces."
"Janus, god of choices," Tessa said. "But this one feeds off fear."
Scott turned to the Banshee. "That's why Halwyn sent you here, Lydia." He turned to his cousin. "That's why you had the dream, Tessa."
She nodded. "He wanted me and Tessa to find the Anuk-Ite's other face."
Lydia made her way to the school and the rest of the group made their way to the school to meet up with Liam and Theo. They'd found more bodies.
Malia sighed, closing the freezer. "It's a bad day for finding bodies."
Liam glanced at her. "There's gonna be a lot more if we don't find Aaron's other half."
"Which we know nothing about," Theo added.
Liam frowned and Tessa rolled her eyes. "So what you're saying is we need to find this werewolf as soon as possible."
Theo looked at her. "Preferably before they merge."
"What happens if they merge?" Liam wondered.
Theo shook his head. "I don't know, but I got a feeling that it's not going to be good."
Liam glanced to Tessa and Scott and asked in a hopeful tone, "Any chance you two got to put that army together, Scott, Tessa?"
Tessa gestured to everyone as Malia said, "You're looking at it."
"Let's hope this thing doesn't feed off desperation, because this room reeks of it," Peter said, entering the room. "I'm also getting the scent of anger from the demigod."
He was covered in soot and was holding a partially burned steering wheel.
"What happened?" Scott wondered.
"The hunters destroyed my perfect automobile. So, if this thing had anything to do with it, I'd like to see its demise is appropriately painful."
Malia's eyes narrowed, showing her confusion. "I thought you said you had two cars?"
Peter dropped a small object. "There's going to be hell to pay."
Tessa nodded sharply. "Glad to see you've come around."
Scott and Tessa walked to Roscoe and climbed in. He turned the ignition and smiled at his cousin. "Ready?"
She nodded. ""I'd like to make the most of it, so what do you say we kill some evil sons of bitches and raise a little hell?""
"No killing and stop quoting Supernatural."
"Never."