Braeden calls for me but I ignore her.

I scan the expanse of the courtyard, searching for Kate. She had stuck to the shadows of the city as began to pick off the Calaveras one by one. She was familiar with the ruins here and used them to her advantage to act like an apparition, blipping in and out of view. 

In her absence, the Calaveras tried to corral her Berserker. 

They used their trucks as makeshift blockades, pushing the creature into a corner. It wasn't going as planned, though, and the large monster easily slipped through the gaps in the vehicles. It searched for its next target, its undead gaze falling on Parrish and Chris as they had been laying a suppressive fire over it. 

The moment the beast charged at the two men, I sprint in their direction, too. 

I swiftly slide onto the hood of Parrish's SUV, standing on it to be at an equal height to the Berserker. I hold down on the trigger of my gun, stopping it in its tracks. My shoulder burns as the stock of my gun repeatedly vibrated into it with each shot, but I swallow the sensation down and don't ease up.

The creature staggers and waves its arms around wildly, trying to swat away flies rather than bullets. It no longer cares about Chris and Parrish and turns, taking off in the opposite direction to free itself from my pestering. A few hunters chase after it, appearing like ants next to a giant. 

Parrish and Chris stare up at me, the former appearing stunned at my presence.

I jump down from his car, coming to stand beside him and Chris. 

"Deputy," I greet him, resting the stock of my gun on my hip. He wipes his face clean of surprise and gestures toward my weapon. 

"Do you have a permit for that?" He asks, and I try to force an amused smirk, but humor is hard to fake as I still wear Derek's blood on my hands.

"What's the plan?" Chris interjects. 

He leans heavily on a nearby pillar. I take in his form, finding his clothes are covered in his blood. He gives a slight shake of his head, telling me not to dwell on it. 

"We have to keep her above ground. Stiles and the others are in the Church tunnels trying to find Scott and Kira. The last thing they need is another Berserker on them," I say. 

"Another?" Chris echoes. 

"She has two, but only one has been with her," I explain. 

Chris nods, but still seems apprehensive. 

"Why aren't you with them?" he asks, referring to my friends. 

I bow my head, glaring at the blood on my hands. 

"She killed Derek," I say. Chris moves to speak, probably wanting to offer words of comfort that would do nothing to change what happened, but he's interrupted by a fearsome scream from the other side of the courtyard.

Cyrus uses a wide slab of discarded wood as a shield against the punches of the Berserker. Splinters fall around him as the beast shatters the wood with its spike. He's backed into a corner of two fallen buildings, both of the walls he's pinned between too high for him to escape over. 

He and I may not have seen eye to eye, but that didn't mean I believed he was worthy of a death like that. 

I lower my gun onto the ground before taking off in his direction, able to move fast without the weight of my gun holding me down. Chris and Parrish call for me to stop but their voices are drowned out by Cyrus' pleas for help. When I reach the Berserker, I use the protruding spine of its armor to climb onto its back. It tries to throw me off but I wrap my legs around its waist to remain attached. 

My actions mirror that of the first time I encountered this creature. But, unlike that night, I understand what I'm up against now. I draw one of my daggers from the interior lining of my jacket and plunge it into the eye socket of the bear skull the creature wore. The blade buries itself into the eye of the Berserker, blinding it on one side. 

The Berserker lets out some sort of mangled growl at the action. It doesn't feel the pain of the stabbing, it only feels inconvenienced. 

The creature reached up to try and yank me off of its back. I quickly jump down before it can touch me, tucking and rolling into the mixture of sand and dirt below me. I remain low, the Berserker swinging its spiked arms from side to side. It can't see much, it's only preparing itself for a potential threat that it could barely see with one good eye.

Hunters rush forward along with Chris and Parrish, taking advantage of the moment. 

They fire at the behemoth, not holding back. The creature remains unharmed, but their bullets do the job to chip away at its bone armor. 

Kate growls from somewhere on the land. The Berserker obeys whatever command she gave it and falls back. Hunters chase after it, but a few stay behind to aid Cyrus. I go with them, helping to lift the wood off of his body.

The bald man clutches his shoulder, looking up at us through dreary eyes. He had been stabbed by the Berserker in their struggle. It didn't seem to be a fatal wound, but the amount of blood he was losing could become a problem. 

"Take him behind the wall," I order the hunters around me. None of them argue as they grab their fellow brother and drag him to cover.

"She's going after Araya!" someone calls out in warning.

Kate stomps toward the head of the Calavera family, her claws already slick with the blood of Araya's kin. Her neon eyes glow pure with hatred as Araya taunts her fearlessly, brandishing nothing but a curved blade. 

I take off toward both women without hesitation, tackling Kate away from Araya. She and I land in a heap on the ground. Kate shoves me off of her to crouch in a defensive position, but her movements still as she realizes I'm no random hunter. 

The last time we were this close, she left me to bleed out. 

"You look like you've seen a ghost." I sneer as I pick myself up off the ground to stand across from her.

"Jac," she whispers, still stunned. 

"Funny. You almost seem guilty," I say with a wry smile. 

Kate takes a step forward. "I didn't mean for it to happen." 

My smile only grows from there, bitter and pained. 

"You know what's pathetic? I actually want to believe you," I confess. 

There would always be a part of me that craved her acceptance; that craved her love. It didn't mean she was good, and it didn't mean I was evil, it just meant that the child inside of me still clung to her for safety. I had no other choice than to love her because she was all I had. 

"After everything you did to me, I still want to think that you loved me in your own way. I still want to think that all those years I fought and killed for you weren't a lie."

"It wasn't," Kate argues. 

Her eyes return to normal despite her skin remaining a deep purple. It's as if she's unknowingly gaining control as my words force her to become human. 

"I do love you," she breathes out, her words quiet like a twisted secret. 

I wince as she speaks, able to feel the phantom pain of every time she ever struck me. That wasn't something a person does to someone they love. I understood that now. 

"You call what you did love?" I glare at her. 

Her gaze falls as if she's unable to bear the sight of me. When she forces herself to look back up, it's through glowing eyes. Her adrenaline is spiking, forcing her shift to remain whole. She knows her words wouldn't provide me with any comfort or convince me to let her walk away; she knows she can't manipulate me anymore.

"So now you're going to kill me too, kid? Is that how this goes?" she asks bitterly, as if I was the one to betray her.

"I'm not gonna kill you." My eyes pass to the various Calavera hunters running around us. "But they will, and I won't stop them."

Kate laughs at my words, but it's not malicious. It actually sounds morbidly proud. 

"You and me, Kate. It ends here," I grit out. Her stance returns to guarded as she prepares herself for what's to come, loyalty and devotion absent between us now. 

"You still can't take me," she warns. 

I smirk as I mirror her stance to perfection, eerily calm. 

"Wanna bet?" I ask. 

Kate instantly lunges at me, my cocky attitude far too much for her to handle.

Her claws rip through the air, trying to find my body. I continuously duck and dodge each of her swipes. Her actions were rushed, almost panicked. She was giving in to her anger and was letting her urges betray her skill. Me using simple offensive tactics was enough to piss her off and make rage blind her. 

Kate saw aggression and suffering as tools. I did once, too, but that only brought me more pain in the long run. Her training led to the demise of my humanity. 

I allowed myself to feel it all at this moment: all of my grief, my hatred, and my desires. It reminded me that I wasn't fighting to survive, I was fighting to live. That wasn't something Kate had ever done. All she fought for was herself, and that wasn't enough.

"Fight back!" she roars at me.

I don't act, not yet. 

I move backward with each attack she attempts. All Kate can see is red, and all she wants for is death. It leaves her completely unaware of the fact that I've been herding her this entire time. 

Slowly, I guide her into an alley between two decaying buildings. It's narrow; too narrow for a Berserker to provide its master with aid. Once I'm assured of the fact that it's only Kate and I now, I finally do as she's asked. 

I drive my thickly soled boot into her knee, her stance buckling under the pressure. She drops down because of it, kneeling before me. She moves to regain her composure, but I act quickly, just as she trained me to do. 

I draw out my second dagger from my jacket, rapidly twisting it in my hands with expert skill to get a proper hold. I'm no fool, I know I can't meet her inhuman strength, but the weight of my dagger can help with that. I bring my fist down onto Kate's face and the heavy impact forces her down further. 

She snarls after shaking her head, forcing herself to dull the ache. When a sliver of her composure is regained she springs up from her position. Her arms wrap themselves around my waist to lift me into the air, then slam me down into the dirt. 

I struggle momentarily, needing to regain my breath. 

Kate uses my lapse to her advantage and straddles my body. She lifts her arm, ready to bring her claws down against my neck. I ignore my hunger for air and raise my lower body, forcing her to get off of me. I use the newly created gap to bring my knee up and divide us, kicking at her stomach to drive her backward. 

She stumbles away, giving me a second to recoup. 

I use one of the shattered walls that enclose us to stand while Kate picks herself up, too. 

The two of us stand on opposite ends of the alley, my dagger in the middle of us. I dropped it when Kate tackled me, and now only had my Glock to back me up. I wouldn't be able to reach for it in time and fire, though. Kate would pounce on me the moment I dropped even an inch of focus on her. 

I need an advantage that would help me regain the upper hand, but I have nothing. I have nothing, until a powerful howl shakes the very foundation of La Iglesia and its city. Kate freezes at the sound while I smile proudly. I'd know that howl anywhere. 

Scott McCall has officially announced himself and his pack; my pack. 

The distraction allows me to dive for the dagger. Kate scrambles, her actions delayed. It gives me a millisecond of a lead against her, and by the time she's rushing forward, I have my blade in my hands once more. I don't hesitate to plunge it into her lower body. 

Kate gasps as I stab her in the same place her Berserker had stabbed me. I stand fully now, and Kate presses herself against me as she deals with the agony of her wound, using me to stay upright.

I allow her to, taking the opportunity to lean into her ear and whisper, "That was for Derek."

I twist the blade inside of her, emitting torturous sobs. I push her away from me, not bothering to yank out my dagger before sending her flying back. She falls out of the narrow alley and finds herself back in the courtyard, over a dozen miscellaneous firearms trained on her.

Kate's head whips from side to side, taking in the sight of being completely surrounded. She glares at me as I venture forward to stand beside the Calavera hunters, no mercy within my gaze.  

"I should've left you to rot in that bunker!" she screams at me. 

I do nothing but smile at her, showing Kate that she did nothing but create her own worst enemy all of these years. 

She growls as she yanks my dagger from her body, tossing it aside. She rises from the dirt, taking a step in my direction. She was willing to be shot down as long as it meant she'd have a chance to get in one last hit. It's a futile effort, though. 

Everything and everyone on the land stills as another howl carries across the air. This one is a lone call, but just as powerful as Scott's. It's unfamiliar, yet there's something inside of me that says it's nothing to fear. 

I watch in awe as a sleek black wolf reveals itself to us, leaping over a pile of rubble. The hunters around me are stunned, and even Kate, as the wolf flashes its eyes. They glow a bright blue, and I almost fall to my knees as I recognize their gaze instantly. 

Derek Hale is alive.

In his new form, he gallops at high speed toward Kate. She can't even react as her fear keeps her in place. He tackles her down then proceeds to claw and chomp at her neck, weakening her further. 

Kate crawls away from him, but only because Derek allows her to. 

He slowly morphs out of his wolf form, becoming human once more. I awkwardly force my gaze up when I find that all he wears is a prideful grin. 

"You were... You were dead," Kate chokes out, clutching her wounded throat. 

"No, I was evolving," Derek replies, sounding more sure of himself now than ever.

"Something you'll never do," he adds.

Kate's Berserker pushes through the wall of hunters around her and heads straight for Derek. Those who hadn't been trampled move to cover him, but that's hardly necessary as Derek clutches the skull of the creature in his bare hands.

Cracks of light shatter its body, and the creature perishes into thin air.

Kate scrambles to stand, intending to run away. She faces a threat she knows she can't challenge. Though, as a single gunshot sounds through the area, it prevents her from going anywhere but the ground. She drops and clutches her inner shoulder. Yellow ooze leaks from the wound, a sign that she wasn't shot with any ordinary bullet. 

She lifts her head, searching for the shooter. 

"Chris?" she breathes out.

Argent stands a few feet away, his Desert Eagle still poised in the air. Tears well in his eyes as he's faced with the fact that he's just shot his only sister, and one of the few family members he has left. It doesn't matter what she's become, he still remembers what she once was. 

Kate crawls away, slipping behind rubble to avoid the gunfire that follows her. She slips into a building and disappears into its shadows. Chris quickly takes after her, sprinting past the dozens of hunters that continue to shoot. 

I want to follow them, but I can't bring myself to look away from Derek yet.

"Why are you naked?" I question him, unable to say what I really want to, which is that seeing him alive once more is one of the best moments of my life.

He smiles in return, but it's stolen by another bout of gunfire from the building Chris followed Kate into. 

"Go," Derek orders me. 

I bolt into the building, finding an access point into the tunnels that run beneath the town. I bring out my Glock as I follow the sloppy prints in the sand beneath my feet, blood mixed into the grains. Chris and Kate left an obvious trail. 

I eventually reach an open space at the bottom of a clay stairwell. Chris stands alone in the middle of the underground room, Kate nowhere to be found. I spot smears of blood on the walls of an adjacent hallway, though. It's a clear indicator as to where Kate had gone, which only confused me more as to why Chris was doing nothing. 

"We can still catch her," I say as I come up behind him, moving toward the direction. 

Chris reaches out to grab my arm, keeping me in place. I look at him, finding a pained expression on his sweaty face. I'm not entirely sure if it's only physical suffering that makes him seem so drained. 

"This isn't your fight anymore," he says gently. 

It's a reminder that whatever wars Kate wanted to wage now were her own. I was free of the shackles she placed around me all those years ago.

Chris moves to climb the staircase, but stumbles. I reach for him, holding him up. I help to lower him onto one of the clay steps so he could rest for a moment. He sighs in relief and closes his eyes, yet still grips my forearms. 

"You okay?" I ask softly. 

"Yeah, yeah. Just took a steel rebar to the gut," he says casually. 

The two of us share a burst of laughter that's incredibly out of place. 

"Don't worry. We'll get you back to town and Melissa will patch you up. You'll be fine in no time," I promise delicately. 

Chris doesn't match my tender smile but instead averts his eyes from mine. 

"It's not your fight anymore, but it's still mine. It's always been mine," he says shamefully. This is his way of telling me that, yet again, he was leaving. 

"I'd ask you to go with me, but-"

"You were right," I interrupt him. "I can't leave them." 

Chris nods, not bothering to rub it in my face. He wanted me to feel as though I had a right to be angry with him, but that wasn't fair. I had accepted Scott's forms of grieving because of how much he meant to me, and I was willing to do the same for Chris. 

"I'm still sorry," he says. 

"I know, and I forgive you." I only hoped he could forgive himself, too. 

"C'mon," I urge, adjusting my hold on him. He allows me to help him up, then proceeds to wrap his arm around my shoulder for support as we climb the stairs. 

Derek, Braeden, and the Calaveras turn our way when we exit the building. I give them a shake of my head, a silent way of saying we hadn't caught up to Kate. They all look disappointed, but there's some relief there, too. Kate wouldn't show her face here for now, which meant we could all heal from last night's fight as the sun began to rise over La Iglesia. 

"Look who found pants," Chris says as we approach Derek, the man now fully dressed. 

Derek smiles as he offers his hand to Chris, too. We guide him over to one of the fallen walls, allowing him to lean on the crumbled bricks. 

As he rests, I take in the sight of Derek alive and well. 

"Evolving, huh?" I quip rhetorically, making him laugh. 

As we stand together, I reach into my pocket and bring out the key he had given to me. I use the hem of my shirt to wipe his blood off of it, as it had stained the metal earlier. 

"I meant it," he says as he watches me. "It's yours now." 

I look at him, feeling a growing absence of what's to come. I think back to finding his bags packed and shoved in his car, all of his things inside. It made sense as to why he did that now that I could process things clearly.

"You were always going to leave, weren't you?" I ask in a low voice. 

Derek doesn't say anything, only nods. His eyes leave me at movement from across the courtyard. Scott and Kira emerge from the mouth of the La Iglesia, covered in blood and grime. Malia, Stiles, and Liam are directly behind them, all returned to me safe and sound. 

Those of them who had seen Derek on the brink of death freeze as he now stands beside me unscathed. 

I laugh at their actions, and Derek mirrors the sound. He and I share an eased expression as if we've only known calmness and peace our entire lives, despite that not being true. Neither of us say anything more to each other, words never necessary between us, and because he already said it all as he lay dying in my arms. 

~

||| A/N |||

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