[3x05; Frayed]

Once again, the whistle rang throughout the bus and once again, Coach's voice accompanied it.

"Back to your seat!"

Stiles barely looked up from his iPad as one of his teammates went back to his seat at Coach's scolding. Instead, he clicked on the banner that popped up on his screen in order to read the message that Olivia sent him.

Livvy: Boyd's not doing anything, is he?

Stiles looked over the top of the seat in front of him to the front of the bus where Boyd and Isaac sat together. The larger beta seemed to be calm at the moment but from how sullen Scott was acting, he doubted Boyd or Isaac were much better.

Sweetcheeks: No, he looks fine. You have a feeling?

Livvy: Yeah, for Scott and Isaac too

Sweetcheeks: What about Derek?

Livvy: I just know he's not dead. Peter and Cora are checking things out, though

Sweetcheeks: All right. Give me updates, k? Love you

Livvy: Love you too <3

Stiles sighed and closed his messaging app, clicking back onto the PSAT app that would help him practice anything that could come up on the test that he'd be taking in the middle of the spring semester. Right now, he and Scott were studying each other on vocabulary as they rode the bus toward their first cross country meet of the semester.

He had given Scott a word two minutes ago and he still didn't have an answer—he was distracted by Olivia, though, so he wasn't in a hurry.

"Scott," he called his best friend's name, snapping his fingers in front of Scott's sullen face. "Hey, Scotty, you still with me?"

Scott, who was leaning his head against the window—which had to be uncomfortable—straightened himself up and cleared his throat. "Yeah, sorry," he looked over at Stiles. "Uh, what's the word?"

"Anachronism."

"Something that exists out of its normal time," Scott answered dutifully.

Stiles' eyes flickered back to his iPad, seeking the definition. "Nice," he hissed with a nod of approval. "Okay, next word...incongruous."

"Um, can you use it in a sentence?"

"Yes, yes I can," Stiles confirmed, a slight edge appearing in his voice. "It's completely incongruous that we're sitting on a bus right now, on our way to some stupid cross country meet after what just happened. Incongruous."

"Out of place, ridiculous, absurd," Scott gave him a pointed look.

Stiles gave him a thumbs up. "Perfect," he wasn't going to stop trying to get Scott to talk about anything. "Okay, next word...uh, Darach. Darach, it's a noun," at the annoyed look Scott was giving him, he defended himself. "We have to talk about it sometime, okay? And we're gonna be stuck in this fucking bus for, like, five hours so why not?"

Scott's answer and tired expression was answer enough.

He went on to the next word. "Okay, next word," he cleared his throat in annoyance. "Intransigent."

"Stubborn, obstinate," Scott said slowly.

The bus went over a rough bump, jostling them. Scott grunted in pain and grabbed his side where he had been injured the night before.

"Oh, buddy, are you all right?" Stiles asked worriedly; Scott winced and gently laid his head back on the window. "We shouldn't have come. I knew it. We shouldn't have come."

"We had to," Scott disagreed. "There's safety in numbers."

"Yeah, well, there's also death in numbers, okay? It's called a massacre," Stiles swiped onto the next word, only to find that 'massacre' was waiting for him. "or bloodbath, carnage, slaughter, butchery...wow, that's—" he swiped onto the next word as the bus rode over something again and Scott let out a pained noise. "All right, Scott, I'm telling Coach that—"

Stiles had stood up to walk the aisle up to where Coach was sitting but Scott grabbed his arm and stopped him. "No, no, no," he cut him off. "I'm all right."

Stiles sat back down and gave him a worried look. "Well, you don't look all right," he leaned forward toward him, trying to grab his shirt to look at his wound; Scott slapped his hands away. "Would you just let me see it?"

"I'm okay."

"Just let me see it," Stiles said firmly yet convincingly.

Scott gave in with a sigh. "Okay."

Scott slowly lifted his gray t-shirt and showed Stiles the wound he received the night before. Three claws marks were deeply carved into his right side, uncleaned and still bleeding. It wasn't healed, which concerned Stiles. He should have been healed and okay by now.

"Dude..."

Scott put his shirt back down. "I know it's bad but it's because they're from an alpha," he excused his wound. "It'll take longer to heal."

Stiles didn't believe him for a second. "How come Boyd and Isaac are fine then?"

Scott didn't answer; he closed his eyes and whispered, "I can't believe Derek's dead."

"Scott, Derek's not dead," he reminded him softly. "Olivia told you that."

"I saw him fall," Scott wouldn't believe Olivia like the rest of them did, which was a little frustrating. "He's dead."

Stiles sighed under his breath and went back to his messaging app.

Sweetcheeks: Scott still thinks Derek's dead

Livvy: Ugh, is his wound looking any better

Sweetcheeks: Worse

Livvy: If he doesn't heal soon it's going to be a problem

Three vehicles behind the bus that held the cross-country team, Olivia sat in the backseat of Allison's car. She finished up texting Stiles and tossed her phone on the seat beside her, trying to not let her worry for Scott encompass her whole being. It was bad enough that she already had Derek to worry about—his name hadn't left her mind at all since the last she saw him in the abandoned mall but she could feel that he was still alive, just heavily injured—and now she had to deal with Scott, too. She didn't hear his name yet but she knew that his wound wasn't getting any better and she would soon hear his name if it didn't heal.

Scott had done a lot of frustrating things since morning dawned—he insisted that he, Stiles, Isaac, and Boyd should go on the cross country trip so they could get away from the alpha pack for safety and he wouldn't let anyone clean or bandage his wound—but the most frustrating thing was his denial that Derek was alive. Yes, her cousin had fallen to what they thought would be his death but she didn't feel him die. She felt the danger he was in and his injury, but he wasn't dead yet—which was why Cora and Peter were on the lookout for him. She didn't understand why Scott wouldn't believe her when she said her cousin was alive.

Maybe he didn't want to get his hopes up but Olivia didn't understand that logic. Sometimes hope was all a person had in these kinds of situations.

"Am I getting too close?" Allison spoke up anxiously. "I'm getting way too close, aren't I?"

"That depends," Lydia replied dryly. "Are you just following the bus or are you planning on mounting it at some point?"

Allison winced. "Yeah, I should back off."

"Ignore her, Al, there's two people in front of us," Olivia leaned forward in her seat so it was easier to converse with them. She didn't bother telling the girls that Stiles knew that they were behind the bus. "And, by the way, do you mean you should back off the bus or Scott?"

"You know, the ex-boyfriend you're currently stalking?" Lydia added with a mischievous grin.

Olivia nudged her in the side with her elbow.

"Well, after what happened, I'm not letting him out of my sight," Allison defended herself; Lydia hummed as she and Olivia exchanged knowing looks. "And by the way, this all started when he came knocking at my door."

"He was telling you not to get involved with the alpha pack and I agree with him," Olivia shared her opinion. "Al, Deucalion and the others scare the fuck out of me. I mean, you were there last night."

"Yeah, and I saved the day," Allison countered.

"I didn't say you didn't," Olivia acknowledged, tapping the older brunette's shoulder. "but still, Scott doesn't want you to get hurt and I think it's nice."

"You could have a boyfriend that hates your guts," Lydia added idly. "It's sweet that he's looking out for you."

Allison shifted uncomfortably in her seat; Olivia noticed and leaned back in hers, dropping the subject.

-

The metal door squealed open just before Scott came running into the loft; all eyes, including Olivia's, were on him as he proclaimed, "I know where they are."

He was talking about the alpha pack and their current location. Olivia and the others already knew where they lived thanks to Boyd and Cora, and it had sent her into a panic. She loved Allison and having the alpha pack only floors above her made her skin itch. The Argents were hunters and she sincerely doubted that the alpha pack had chosen the penthouse in their building out of coincidence.

"Same building as the Argents, we know," Derek confirmed as he looked up from the table they surrounded, blueprints of the Argents' apartment building laid flat in front of them.

"Cora and I followed the twins," Boyd informed Scott as he settled into the space at the table between him and Cora.

"Then they want you to know."

"Or, more likely, they don't care," Peter stated from Derek's other side.

Scott looked down at the blueprints on the table. "What is this?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Peter looked at him pointedly. "The schemers are scheming, coming up with a coup de man, better known as a pre-emptive strike."

Scott looked at Derek in disbelief. "You're going after them?"

"Tomorrow," Derek confirmed. "And you're gonna help us."

Scott looked unsettled as he asked, "What's your plan?"

"We're going after them. They live one floor above them in the penthouse," Derek told him simply. "Right above Allison."

"So kill them first?" Scott raised his eyebrows; he didn't seem impressed. Olivia winced, wishing that they had a better plan. "that's the plan?"

"They won't even see it coming," Boyd told him.

Olivia and Isaac, who was on her left and the only one to agree with her that the plan wasn't very good, gave each other knowing looks. They had already expressed their unease but Boyd, Cora, and Derek disagreed with them.

Scott sighed. "Why is the default plan always murder? Just once, can someone try to come up with something that doesn't involve killing everyone?"

See, that was where Olivia disagreed with Scott. Yes, she disagreed with the plan—she believed that they needed something far more thought out then going to an apartment building where humans lived—but that didn't mean that the alpha pack didn't need to die. They were coming after Derek, wanting him to kill his pack, and for some reason, they wanted her to. She didn't think that they would stop coming after her cousin just because he said no to them. They didn't seem the type.

So, it was kill or be killed.

"You never get tired of being so blandly moral, do you?" it was clear that Peter was annoyed with Scott's statement. "Not that I disagree with him."

"I do," Cora gave Scott a look of disgust. "Why do we need this kid?"

"Cora, Scott helped save your life," Olivia sighed, pressing two fingers to her temple.

Derek gave his sister a pointed look before addressing Scott, "You know we can't just sit back and wait for them to make the first move."

Scott shook his head. "You can't beat a pack of alphas."

"That's why we're going after Deucalion," Cora told Scott. "Just him."

Boyd nodded. "Cut off the head of the snake and the body dies."

"Only this isn't a snake, it's a hydra," Peter interjected. "And like Scott said, they're all alphas."

"Deucalion's still the leader," Derek said firmly.

"Let's hope so," Peter muttered. "Because you know what happened when Hercules cut off one of the heads of the hydra?"

"Two more grew back in its place," Olivia supplied absentmindedly.

Peter grinned at her. "That's right, pumpkin."

-

-

The whistle pierced Stiles ears once again, making him let out an aggravated sigh. Coach was in the middle of the bus now, so the noise was much worse than before. As always, it was accompanied by Coach's yelling, which was previously on two kids who weren't in their seats and was now directed toward Jared Stevens, who had a reputation of being car sick.

"Jared, again, car sick?" Coach glared at him in annoyance; Jared moaned in response. "Every time—how do you even get on the bus?"

Jared grunted.

"Look at me," Coach demanded and then faltered. "No, don't look at me. Look—look at the horizon. Keep your eyes—keep your eyes on the horizon."

Coach's attention left Jared and focused on the back of the bus where Stiles and Scott were seated. Once he saw the pained expression on Scott's face, he yelled, "McCall, not you too!"

Scott swallowed back a gasp of pain as he straightened in his seat and called, "No, Coach, I'm good."

Coach took his promise as a sign of good health and turned his attention elsewhere.

Stiles pressed his lips together and looked over at Scott, grimacing when he saw that he had started to bleed through his t-shirt. "Hey, Scott, you're bleeding again and don't tell me that it's just taking longer to heal, okay? Because I'm pretty sure that still bleeding means not healing, like, at all."

Scott didn't respond and when Stiles looked at him, he saw that he was staring ahead where Ethan was sitting next to Danny.

"He's listening."

Stiles narrowed his eyes at the lonesome twin. "Is he gonna do something?"

"Not in front of this many people."

Stiles nodded as his eyes drifted a couple seats ahead of Ethan, where Boyd and Isaac were sitting. Boyd was sitting tall and alert, glancing back at the alpha every couple of seconds. "Okay, well, what about the two ticking time bombs sitting right near him?"

"No, they won't," Scott looked at Boyd and Isaac too. "Not here."

"Well, what if they do?" Stiles countered. "Are you gonna stop them?"

Scott looked over to him, serious. "If I have to."

-

-

"So," Olivia turned to Stiles as he entered her bedroom after dropping Isaac off at Scott's house. "Will you tell me how you know Cora?"

"I don't think you really want me to," Stiles laughed nervously as he kicked off his shoes and socks (Olivia didn't allow them on her bed, which meant he had to discard them each time he came to her house). He casually laid himself on the right side of the bed—really, it was his side since Olivia preferred the left—and grinned when Sirius jumped onto the bed in order to lay his head on his stomach.

Olivia discarded the necklace from her neck and set it back in its place within her jewelry tower before looking at him with raised eyebrows. "I do want to know," she insisted. "Why is it such a big deal to you? Is it bad?"

Stiles grimaced and patted Sirius' head between his big ears. "That kinda depends."

"On?"

"On whether it's a big deal to you."

Now Olivia was intrigued. He watched as she slipped off her cardigan, setting it carefully in her laundry basket, and wandered over to the bed. She stopped right in front of where he was laying and ran her fingers through his messy hair, scratching his scalp lightly; Stiles sighed at the relaxing sensation, leaning his head forward to rest on her stomach.

"Just tell me."

"All right," he sighed, not as relaxed as before. "You remember when I told you that me and my dad went to San Francisco last summer for his conference and we made it a sort of vacation?" Olivia nodded. "Well, I went to a party at the beach one night and...ImetCoraandwesortofhadsex."

Despite his very quick confession, Olivia managed to understand every world. "You and Cora had sex?"

Her voice was calm, so Stiles ventured out of his hiding place. He lifted his head out of her stomach and gave her a cautious look. He knew that there was a war going on in her cobalt-blue eyes, he could see it. He just didn't know which side of the spectrum of emotions she was going to land on when it came to reacting to his confession.

Honestly, Olivia didn't know, either. She was angry, of course—Cora, who she had literally thought was dead, was alive and sexing it up with Stiles in San Francisco when she could have let Olivia, Laura, and Derek know that she was alive—and she was hurt—which made no sense because she and Stiles weren't even together that summer or the fall semester that led up to their friendship—and she was jealous. Stiles had been resisting their attempts at sex and here she was, with a cousin who had already experienced what sex was like with Stiles Stilinski.

She was mature enough to not show upset she was because she really had no right; it wasn't like Stiles lied about it as she was pretty sure she knew he wasn't a virgin and how was he to know that Cora was Olivia's cousin—especially since he made it clear when Cora arrived in the loft that Cora had introduced herself to him as Cara. It just bothered her so much that Stiles and her cousin had sex and she didn't even know why, to the full extent.

When Stiles nodded, she nodded back at him hesitantly. "Oh."

"Oh," Stiles grimaced. "Are you mad? Please don't be mad, Livvy. I didn't know who she was and it was before we even spoke to each other and honestly, it wasn't the best. It was our first times, you know, so it wasn't much fun. Not that—uh, should I keep talking or...?"

"I'm not mad," Olivia told him and in time, she wouldn't be. The only reason she was angry was something that Stiles nor Cora could control and it would blow over soon. "Jealous, yes, but angry, no."

Stiles quirked an eyebrow at her, keeping cool so she wouldn't see the relief he was currently feeling. "Jealous?"

Olivia rolled her eyes at him and shooed Sirius off her bed; he happily skipped over to his bed. "Well, here you were, not wanting to have sex all this time—"

"Because I want our first time to be special!" Stiles exclaimed.

"And it turns out you had already given your goods out to my cousin," Olivia continued, her voice taking on a playful tone. "What am I gonna do with you, sweetcheeks?"

"Love me," Stiles grinned up at her as he sat up and grabbed her hips, pulling her onto his lap. "Do you want me to give you my goods, baby girl?"

Olivia grimaced slightly. "Not if you call me that. Never if you call me that."

Stiles rolled his eyes and placed a hot kiss against her jaw. "Baby."

"Nope."

Another kiss nearing her ear.

"Babe."

He flicked her earlobe with his tongue before pulling it into his mouth to suck on it. "Livvy."

Olivia sighed pleasurably as he left her ear and trailed his tongue down her neck. "Fine."

"Ollie."

"Hello?"

"Olivia, are you listening to me?"

Olivia winced as she remembered that she was on the phone with Cora and now was not the time to remember the night after it was revealed that Stiles and Cora knew each other from somewhere. What had started out as a confession from Stiles led to him fingering her while she sat in his lap and stroked his cock—which, she realized, was a very weird way to end a conversation in which your boyfriend admitted that he lost his virginity to your cousin.

She couldn't believe that she had spaced out like that when Derek was in such danger.

"Sorry, Cora, I was distracted by a pretty rock," she grimaced at her lie and ignored the bewildered looks that Allison and Lydia gave her.

"Sure," by Cora's tone, Olivia could tell she didn't believe her. "Anyway, I caught up with Peter and we went to the mall. Neither of their bodies were there."

"Well, we know that Derek is still alive," Olivia said.

"Right but now we have to find out where it was that Derek went," Cora sighed. "He's not at the loft and he's not at the house."

"Okay, try my pool house," she remembered the time that she let Derek stay there when the police were after him. "and maybe try the animal clinic."

"We will," Cora confirmed. "In the meantime, Peter says that you should try to get a hold of his location."

"I'll try," Olivia promised. "Talk to you soon. Be careful."

"You too. Bye."

Once again, Olivia tossed her phone onto the seat beside her. She quickly told Allison and Lydia what Cora had told her, before she closed her eyes to try to find Derek's location.

It was hard to do anything because she was in a moving car that was steadily driving further and further away from Beacon Hills but she still tried her harder. She spent half an hour, trying to find her cousin's location but the closest she ever got was that he was still in Beacon Hills, which didn't really narrow down where he could be.

Finding her packmates was probably the ability that she had to try the hardest at. It wasn't as natural as sensing if one of them was in danger and while she still had trouble calming them down when they were out of control, at least she had made progress on that. Her mental radar—if she wanted to call it that—was harder to understand and use but with more practice, she hoped that she would get better at it.

"So," Lydia spoke up a half-hour after Olivia ended her call with Cora, her eyes flitting from the thermodynamics text she borrowed from Olivia to the gas gage on the dashboard. "is that whole not-let-them-out-of-your-sight thing literal or more like a general rule?"

Olivia gave her cousin a curious look as Allison asked, "Why?"

"You're running on fumes."

Allison took one look at the gas gage, which was hovering on empty, and groaned. "Shit."

"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure that bus holds a lot more gas than this Toyota," the redhead added, not helping Allison's distress.

"What if we stop?" Olivia suggested.

Allison shook her head. "No."

"Is it really that big of a deal?" Lydia wondered, looking at Allison. "I mean, so we lose them. We know where they're headed."

Allison pressed her lips together and shook her head. "You didn't see what happened."

"I know who started it," Lydia hummed.

A flare of irritation sparked in Olivia's chest at Lydia's comment; she leaned forward in her seat to glare at her. "Is that what Aiden told you?"

Lydia scoffed. "Aiden?" she looked to see if Olivia was serious; she was. "Woah, woah, woah, hold on a second. Is that why you two invited me on this whole little road trip thing?"

Olivia gave her a pointed look.

"Oh, my God, you're keeping an eye on them and me."

"Well, I'm sorry if I don't trust Aiden, who happens to be one of the alpha pack," Olivia defended herself. "And I know that you and Aiden have something going on—"

"We do not!" Lydia interjected with a gasp. "I'm appalled by the insinuation."

Olivia rolled her eyes while Allison gave her a look of disbelief. "Nothing?"

"Nothing."

"Liar," Olivia called her out, her anger somewhat dissipating. She had always had a hard time being angry with Lydia. It was that way when they were kids and Lydia wouldn't let her play with her make-up and it was that way now. 

"I'm not lying," Lydia insisted as she pulled her lipstick out of her purse to apply a layer.

Olivia and Allison gave her knowing looks.

"What?"

Allison just shook her head and pressed on the brakes as the cars in front of them came to a stop. There had to be some kind of accident up ahead because the traffic on the highway was usually never bumper to bumper like it was then.

"Why'd we stop?" Lydia wondered.

"I don't know."

Just as Olivia had unlocked her phone to check the traffic patterns, a subtle alarm went off in her head warning her that Boyd was having trouble. It was almost as she could feel his control slipping away as her mind whispered to her.

She hurriedly pressed on Stiles' contact and sighed in relief when he answered, "Hey."

"Hi, I need you or Scott to check on Boyd," she said hurriedly. "He's losing control and I'm guessing that it has to do with Ethan."

Up ahead on the bus, Stiles nudged Scott, "Scott, it's Boyd, he's gonna do something."

Scott looked at him in alarm. "How do you know?"

Stiles gestured to his phone and Scott nodded. He carefully stood up, trying not to hurt his wound anymore, and pushed past Stiles and into the aisle.

"Livvy?" Stiles spoke into the phone once Scott was on his way to Boyd.

"I'm here."

"Scott's talking to him right now," he studied the situation ahead of him and sighed in relief when Boyd relaxed and Scott turned around to come back to his seat. "and I think everything's okay."

"Yeah, he has control now," she confirmed. "I can feel it."

"It's so cool that you know that," Stiles shook his head, amazed by his badass girlfriend. "Okay, gotta go, babe, love ya."

"Stil—"

He hung up before she could finish her protest about his pet name and smiled innocently at Scott, as though he didn't hear the conversation he was having with Olivia.

"Crisis averted?" he stood so Scott would have an easier time getting to his seat.

Scott nodded. "Mmhm."

"Okay, good, cause we have another problem," Stiles now focused on the problem he was keeping an eye on before Olivia called him about Boyd. His eyes found Ethan, who was checking his phone every five minutes. "Ethan keeps checking his phone, like, every five minutes. It's like he's waiting for something, you know, like a message or a signal of some kind—it's something evil, though, I can tell. I have a very perceptive eye for evil, but you know that."

Once Stiles mentioned Ethan and his phone-checking, he blocked out the rest of his best friend's rambling. "I don't like him sitting with Danny."

"Yeah, neither do I," Stiles agreed; he hurriedly grabbed his phone and went to his contacts to find Danny's. "I'm gonna see what he's waiting for?"

Scott looked at him curiously. "What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna ask."

Stiles Stilinski: Find out why Ethan keeps checking his phone

Stiles watched Danny closely to see if he got his text; when Danny looked back at him, bewildered, his waved at him with an enthusiastic smile. Danny shook his head in response and Stiles frowned.

He quickly drafted another message.

Stiles Stilinski: Just do it!

Danny: No.

Stiles Stilinski: ASK HIM.

When Danny looked back at him again, Stiles raised his hands and frantically gestured at Ethan.

Danny turned back around and he got a message soon after.

Danny: NO. I like this guy. What the hell is wrong with you?

Stiles sighed in aggravation.

Stiles Stilinski: It's important. PLEASE.

Danny didn't respond and when he saw him put his phone back in his pocket, he growled under his breath. He went wild, just sending Danny emojis so that his phone would go off every second until he was so annoyed that he would have to ask Ethan what was going on just to get Stiles to stop sending him messages.

He must have sent fifty or sixty messages in a row. He actually stood up so he could get a better look at Danny and Ethan and only sat down when he saw that they were talking. And then, when Ethan turned around to look at them, he and Scott hurriedly ducked behind the seat as if Ethan hadn't already seen them.

"Well, that wasn't very subtle," Stiles muttered to Scott.

They sat up straight as Ethan turned back around. Only two minutes later, his phone beeped.

Danny: Someone close to him is sick. Might not make it through the night.

Stiles showed Scott the message; Scott looked at him in surprise. "Ennis?

Stiles nodded. "He's not dead yet."

While Stiles updated Olivia what was going on with Ethan, Ennis, and the rest of the alpha pack so she could pass it onto Cora and Peter, Coach had started up his rounds of the bus again to make sure everyone was keeping themselves out of trouble.

"Jared, I'm warning you, I'm an empathetic vomiter," the thing with Coach was that he didn't know how to speak quietly, which was unfortunate for everyone else on the bus. "You throw up, I'm gonna throw up right back on you and it will be profoundly disgusting."

"Please don't talk about throwing up," Jared squeaked in response. "It's not good."

"I might throw up on you just to make a point, Jared," Coach replied before addressing the rest of the team. "Now, the rest of you, don't think we're gonna miss this meet because of a slight traffic jam, a minor tornado warning...or Jared. We're gonna make this thing. Nothing is gonna stop us!"

Stiles raised his hand, hoping to get a word in.

"Stilinski, put your hand down."

Stiles decided it was worth a try. "You know, there's, like, a food exit about a half a mile up," he told Coach. "I don't know, if we stop and then maybe traffic—"

"We're not gonna stop," Coach cut him off.

"Okay, but if we stop—"

"Stilinski!" Coach shouted his name before blowing his whistle. "Shut it! Seriously! It's a little bus! Stop asking me questions!"

Stiles leaned back in his seat, now fully irritated. "I hate him," he sighed and looked over at Scott and noticed that he was pretty much out of it. "Did you call Deaton?"

"I keep getting his voicemail," Scott answered sluggishly.

"That's it," Stiles snapped and picked up his phone to call Olivia. "I'm calling Livvy, Lydia, and Allison."

Scott blinked at him. "How are they gonna help? They're back in Beacon Hills."

"No, they're not," Stiles told him and turned in his seat to look out the back window, spotting Allison's Toyota only a few cars back. "They've been following us for hours."

Olivia answered immediately. "What's going on?"

"Can you put me on speakerphone?"

There was a little shuffling on her end as she adjusted the volume so Lydia and Allison could hear what he was saying. "Okay, we can all hear you."

"Okay, look, Scott's still hurt."

"What do you mean still?" Allison asked. "He's not healing?"

"No, he's not healing. I think he's actually getting worse," he informed them. "The blood's turning, like a black color."

"That's not good, Stiles," Olivia said worriedly. "That's bad. Like, really bad."

"I know, I know. What are we supposed to do?"

"We need to get him off the bus," Allison answered him.

"And take him where, a hospital?" Lydia spoke up.

"If he's dying, yeah," Allison confirmed. "Stiles, there's a rest area about a mile up. Tell Coach to pull over."

Stiles rolled his eyes; he wished it was that simple. "Yeah, I've been trying."

"Well, reason with him."

"Reason with him?" he repeated with a scoff. "have you met this guy?"

"Just try something."

Stiles groaned and ended the call, forcing his phone into his jeans before he stood up to approach Coach. Coach, who had been talking to Jared once again, sighed when he saw Stiles come up to him.

"There's a rest stop a mile—"

"Don't even start, Stilinski," Coach cut him off before he could really begin.

"Coach, it's five minutes for a bathroom break, okay?" Stiles tried to reason with him like Allison suggested. "We've been on this thing for, like, three hours—"

Coach blew his whistle sharply.

Stiles inhaled deeply, trying to get his irritation under control, "It's sixty miles to the next rest stop—"

Chirp! Coach pulled his whistle away from his mouth to give Stiles a smug smile.

"Being cooped up for hours is not good—"

Chirp!

"You know, our bladders aren't exactly—"

Chirp!

"Coach, this is—" chirp! "Can you—" chirp! "Please—" chirp! "Let me talk!" Coach chuckled in amusement. "Every time—"

Chhhiiirrrppp!

If he didn't get that fucking whistle out of his mouth, Stiles was going to take it and throw it out of the fucking window.

"Get back to your seat, Stilinski!"

"OKAY!" Stiles yelled back, losing his temper.

"And Jared, keep your eyes on the horizon," Coach added to the boy who sat in the seat next to Stiles' hip.

A plan forming in his head, he quickly sat next to him with an innocent expression. "Hey, Jared," he greeted him, a smirk stretching his lips. "How ya doing?"

-

-

The private family bathroom that Olivia and Lydia led Stiles, Scott, and Allison into wasn't that bad for a rest stop. It was relatively clean and it had a lock so they could have privacy and no one could wander in and see what was going on with Scott.

Stiles and Allison gently sat him down next to the sink and when Allison slowly lifted his stained t-shirt, they all gasped in shock. The wound was completely black and sticky with more black blood while the veins in his stomach were slowly turning black. Olivia knew what black blood meant and it wasn't anything good. If they couldn't get Scott to start healing, then he would die.

As it was, it didn't look like he had much life left in him.

"Oh, my God," Allison breathed. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Sorry," Scott breathed, looking back at her with dazed eyes.

"Okay, just give us a second," Allison lowered his shirt and straightened to her full height so she, Olivia, Stiles, and Lydia could confer. "This shouldn't be happening. I've seen him heal from worse than this."

"Okay, what do we do then?" Stiles asked her as Olivia kept her eyes on Scott, her mind racing. "Do we just call an ambulance?"

"What if it's too late?" Lydia interjected. "What if they can't help?"

"We gotta do something."

Scott, Scott, Scott, his name was chanted over and over in Olivia's head. He's almost lost, he's almost lost. Without Derek, he could be lost.

She hated when the voice in her head started on its riddles. She would have been more upset if she hadn't known what it was talking about. Scott was an empathetic person and he respected Derek and felt guilty for letting him fall onto that escalator the night before. For whatever reason, Scott didn't believe Olivia when she said that Derek was alive. Maybe he thought she was in denial but that wasn't the point. Scott thought Derek was dead and he thought that it was his fault.

"It could be psychological," she told the others.

Stiles gave her a confused look. "What do you mean? Like psychosomatic?"

"No, she means somatoformic," Lydia corrected him for Olivia.

"What?"

"It's a physical illness from a psychogenic cause," Olivia elaborated for him. "It's all in his head."

"In his head?"

She didn't have time to wonder how her boyfriend could be a genius but still be dumb about some things. "Because of Derek," she clarified. "He's not letting himself heal because he thinks that Derek's dead."

As Lydia rummaged through her purse, Allison asked, "So, what do we do?"

"Stitch him up," Lydia pulled out a miniature sewing kit from her bag and held it out so they could all see it. Olivia nodded in approval while Stiles and Allison gave her doubtful looks. "I'm serious. Maybe all he needs to do is just believe he's healing."

"If it doesn't work, at least he's stitched up and he won't lose anymore blood," Olivia rationalized.

Allison sighed and took the sewing kit from Lydia. They set to work on making sure the area was as clean as it could get so that Scott wouldn't get an infection; Olivia and Stiles laid paper towels down around Scott, Lydia soaked some towels in water, and Allison sterilized the needle with the lighter she got from her bag.

"He's gonna need another shirt," Allison stated as she knelt in front of Scott. "Where's his bad?"

"Um, I'm gonna get it," Stiles volunteered quickly. "I hate needles anyway, so...uh, do you know what you're doing, though?"

"Yeah, my father taught me," Allison assured him.

"I mean, how fast are you gonna...I mean, the bus, like, the bus could leave—"

Olivia cut off her boyfriend's nervous rambling. "We'll make sure it doesn't leave," she grabbed Stiles hand and led him out of the bathroom. "Come on."

Olivia hated the eerie feeling that the abandoned and destroyed mall was giving her. Even more, she hated that she was stationed alone on a platform high above where the action would be taking place. It was far away that none of the alphas could get her while trying to fight off Derek and the rest of their pack but not too far for her to try to use her abilities to subdue the alphas. She doubted she could affect them at all, but she would give it a shot.

She watched silently, her jacket and clothes covered in dust so that the alphas wouldn't catch her scent, as Kali escorted Deucalion to his perch on an escalator. Kali left him, presumably to join the others waiting in the shadows, and soon, Scott and Isaac walked in.

"You didn't come alone," Deucalion acknowledged Scott.

"Yeah, this is Isaac," Scott told him, gesturing to the blonde beta at his side.

"I'm not talking about Isaac," Deucalion stated vaguely.

Derek took that moment to slowly walk out next to Scott, his face transformed with his wolf features and his sharp claws out and ready. He slowly overtook the betas and stood a couple feet in front of them, as if to block them from Deucalion's gaze.

Scott gaped at him. "You know I would do this?" he didn't receive an answer. "Derek, don't. You can't do this so no one gets hurt."

Scott didn't get that someone was going to get hurt, anyway. Derek had already been nearly killed by Kali and Deucalion wanted him to kill his betas and maybe even her. This was a no win situation, no matter which way it went.

"If someone else dies—"

"Him," Derek pointed at Deucalion. "Just him."

"Just me?" Deucalion repeated. "Now, how's a blind man find his way into a place like this all on his own?"

As if on cue, Kali started sliding down a pillar, her nasty toe-claws digging into the concrete and making crumble to the dusty floor. Her crimson eyes glowed in the faint darkness and she growled threateningly, low in her throat. Out of a hallway under the platform where Olivia was situated, emerged Boyd and Cora but only feet away from them came Ethan and Aiden. From the escalator that came to the level were everyone was standing, Ennis walked forward, his presence large and looming threatening over the others.

Derek moved first, sprinting toward Deucalion but Kali was quick to step in, throwing him to the ground. The others moved after that; Scott and Isaac teamed up to take on the twins, who had merged as one, and Cora and Boyd tried to hold their own against Ennis.

Meanwhile, Olivia clenched her hands tightly and closed her eyes. In her mind, she pictured the platform under her where her packmates and the alpha pack fought and tried to make it like a map. She could feel where her packmates were so all she had to do was insert the alphas next to them and focus on them. She highlighted them in her mind and the same calming feeling—she didn't know if it was an aura or if it was manipulation, or whatever—that she used during the full moons strictly toward the alphas.

From what she was seeing from the alphas' figures, the easiest to break down was Ethan. He was kinder than the others and had more of a conscious that was easy to manipulate. Getting him to change back to his human form and separate from Aiden would be a great advantage.

It was easier said than done. Not only was she trying to manipulate Ethan but she could feel how her packmates were doing through their link and to say that things weren't looking good would be an understatement. Currently, Kali was pretty much beating Derek's ass and helping Ennis take down Boyd at the same time and Cora was somewhere, probably unconscious.

She wasn't able to get Ethan to transform back. It was all too quick; Kali had Cora pinned to the ground with her nasty foot on her neck, Ennis had Boyd vulnerable to any attack, and Ethan and Aiden had Scott and Isaac laid out in front of them.

"Kill him," Deucalion spoke to Derek, gesturing to where Boyd laid. "The others can go. Olivia can go too."

Olivia winced, cursing herself for being caught, and stood. They knew she was there anyway, there was no need to hide any longer.

Derek looked around at his pack, seeing that all of them except Olivia were caught and had no room to fight back. It was clear that he was trapped; he didn't know what to do.

So, Olivia closed her eyes and started with that mental map again, focusing on the alpha pack's weakest link.

"You're beaten," Deucalion continued on, though Olivia did her best to ignore him. "Do it, Derek. Take the first step."

Derek didn't move.

"Are we serious with this kid?" Kali sneered at Deucalion, eyeing Derek furiously. "Look at him. He's an alpha? To what, a couple of useless teenagers?"

"Some have more promise than others," Olivia didn't catch the way that Deucalion eyed her and Scott.

"Let him rise to the occasion then. What'll be, Derek? Pack," she tightened her stance on Cora's neck. "or family?"

Olivia gritted her teeth, a wave of power coming over her. "ETHAN!"

Her scream not only caused a distraction but Ethan and Aiden's conjoined form fell apart, leaving each twin to defend themselves. As if that wasn't enough, Allison sneaked up beside her and had her bow and arrows at the ready.

Olivia took one look at the flashbulb arrowheads on her arrows and grinned as Allison took her shot. The arrow hit and an intense light flooded the room, sending the alpha pack to their knees. The Hale pack and Scott were familiar with the arrows; they closed their eyes and took the opportunity to fight back. Isaac and Scott started fighting Ethan and Aiden individually. Derek and Cora took the advantage of Kali and Ennis being blown away by the arrow to gather Boyd and get him on his feet.

Once Ethan and Aiden were subdued to where Isaac could fight them off himself, Scott started on Ennis. They collided so roughly that the sound that came from them echoed through the abandoned building. They were thrown off in different directions and when Scott landed in a typical superhero landing, Olivia was shocked to see that his eyes had flashed to that alpha red that was so familiar.

Scott blinked and his eyes changed back to gold. He went back to Ennis and Derek came from the other side, both of them hitting the alpha's back and front. Derek and Ennis ended up further away from Scott and they fought savagely, growling and grunting as they attacked each other.

It was when they were close to the edge of the platform that Derek's name started going off in Olivia's head. They teetered on the edge, holding onto one another but when Scott dived, sinking his claws into Ennis' calf, it all changed.

Ennis started falling and all that anyone could do was watch as he took Derek with him.

"DEREK!"

"Livvy? Earth to Livvy?" she heard Stiles calling her name; she blinked and opened her eyes to see that he was waving his hand in her face. "Baby, are you in there?"

She reached up and grabbed his hand. "No pet names."

Stiles grinned at her. "There you are. You were out of it for a second, huh?" she nodded. "Are you okay?"

"I was just thinking about last night," Olivia gave him a half-hearted smile and quickly changed the subject. "So, when you tried to think of something to stop the bus, making Jared puke was the first thing that came to your mind?"

"You can say it, I'm a genius," Stiles boasted, causing her to laugh.

"The genius who gets to ride in a bus that smells like vomit," she playfully pinched his side where she knew he was ticklish; he jerked away from her with a grimace and a fake glare.

"I'm gonna get you for that."

"Mm," she hummed. "Sure you will, sweetcheeks."

"Hey, hey, no pet names!"

From the doorway of the bus, Coach blew his whistle, catching their attention as well as the rest of their classmates. "Let's go!" he yelled. "Back on the bus!"

Olivia and Stiles gave each other panicked looks and then searched for Lydia, who was standing near the rest stop waiting for Allison and Scott to come out. She gave them an equally nervous look.

"Okay, I'm gonna go distract Coach," Stiles told Olivia. "I did it once and I can do it again."

"Good luck."

As Stiles marched over to Coach, Isaac and Boyd made their way over to her.

"Hey, what's going on with you guys?" Isaac wondered. "Is it Scott?"

Olivia bit the inside of her cheek and answered honestly, "Yeah, he's wasn't healing so Allison's trying to stitch him up in the bathroom."

Boyd raised his eyebrows. "Is she almost done?"

"I have no idea," she sighed and looked at Isaac, who was glaring in Ethan's direction. "Isaac?"

"I can buy them more time," he said simply before strutting over to the alpha.

Isaac lunged toward Ethan and immediately, a fight broke out. Without his brother there to fight with him, Ethan was pretty much useless. Isaac quickly overpowered him and didn't stop punching him in the face, even though Coach was screaming at him to stop.

Olivia wasn't sure if she should interfere. She wasn't even sure she wanted to interfere. Ethan might have been the nicer of the twin alphas but he was in no way innocent. He had a hand in killing Erica like the rest of the pack and he was a killer. He deserved a good punching in the face.

"Liv, what's happening?" Scott called for her as Allison and Lydia helped him over to her side.

"Isaac went after Ethan," she said calmly. "I told them what was happening with you so now Isaac's causing a distraction."

Stiles ran back to them just as she was finishing telling Scott what happened. "You know, I don't think you should be so calm about that."

"What?" she shrugged casually. "he deserves it."

Scott gave her a scolding look and broke away from Allison and Lydia's grips to make his way toward the fight. Boyd was standing to the side with their teammates, watching Ethan's beatdown unfold, a satisfied look on his face. Scott pushed through the crowd surrounding Isaac and Ethan.

"ISAAC!"

Olivia's gaze flashed purple from his shout and through her link to Isaac, she could feel him calm down.

Huh, she thought, interesting...

They were all herded onto the bus—even Olivia, Allison, and Lydia since Allison's car was out of gas. Olivia shared a seat with Stiles since Allison wanted to sit with Scott and Lydia was left to sit alone in the seat in front of them as the bus pulled away from the rest stop and continued toward the school where their meet was to take place.

"All right, let's go over this one more time," Stiles spoke up, catching Olivia's and Lydia's attention. "So it's the sacrifices, right? Everything has to do with them and someone who thinks he's, like, a dark druid of some kind."

"Or actually is a dark druid," Olivia countered, resting her head on his shoulder. "A darach."

Stiles nodded and pressed his lips to the crown of her head.

Lydia hummed thoughtfully. "You know, some ancient cultures sacrificed people in preparation for battle."

Olivia sighed in realization and Stiles raised his eyebrows as he picked up what she meant. It hadn't been a coincidence that the sacrifices started happening when the alpha pack arrived in Beacon Hills. This darach, whoever he was, was preparing to face them, for whatever reason.

"So, we got alpha werewolves against a dark druid," he sighed. "Great."

Their lives got easier every day, didn't they?