master plan

Sheriff Stilinski stood in the locker room questioning Scott and Isaac who had barely managed to change out of their jerseys before being swarmed with questions from the man, he was desperate to find out where his son and Kinsey had disappeared to. He had hoped that it is the two of them who meant that they were just out being teenagers, that the two had gotten too caught up in the celebration of the game that they hadn't thought to tell anyone where they were going. But that plan was ruined by Stiles's Jeep in the parking lot and Kinsey's car still on his driveway at home. Wherever the two had gone, it couldn't have been on foot. In the midst of trying to find the two teenagers, he now had a death to investigate of yet another teenager. A case he couldn't put his whole heart into while his son was out somewhere. The man couldn't gather any of his thoughts knowing that the two could be hurt, Kinsey was supposed to be in his care, if she got hurt he didn't know what he would do. And if he lost his son, well, he didn't want to think about what he would have to do in that case either.

"Look, if they answer their phones if they answer their emails if either of you sees them..."

"We'll call you," Isaac reassured the man. He was just as concerned, of course, his concern was mostly aimed towards Kinsey rather than Stiles. How could it not be? He had always tried to be there to protect her, and the one time she needed it most, he hadn't been there.

"Look, Stiles is probably just freaked out from all the attention or something so Kinsey took him somewhere so he can breathe. We'll find them." Scott added, trying to be as convincing as possible. Part of him would have liked to believe his own words but he knew better than to think like that, he was almost certain Gerard had done something to both of them.

Sheriff Stilinski nodded, he had faith in the two wolves to contact him if they knew anything. He left the two of them to handle the other pending case from the night, Jackson. He had an entire lacrosse team to question, as well as searching for witnessed who was in the crowd. Anyone who could work out who or what had killed Jackson Whittemore tonight. As soon as the man had left them they were approached by Coach, at first, the two had been expecting a lecture on their behavior tonight, after Isaac had tackled and injured almost the entire team and Scott had wandered off during the middle of a game, they had it coming. But the man didn't have a lecture in him after tonight. Instead, he made it clear that the team needed Scott, he needed Scott on the team, but while his grades remained so low, he couldn't fight against Gerard on that matter. The man expressed how he knew how much he yelled and that sometimes it may seem like he hated all of the team, but he made it clear that he didn't hate any of them, well, maybe he hated Greenberg, but the rest of the team, including the two wolves in front of him, meant a lot. Before his words became too soppy Coach left with a final warning for Scott to build up his grades.

The two watched as Coach left the room, only then did they make sure the coast was clear, only when it was could they discuss what was really going on tonight. While Isaac had another final scan of the locker room Scott had turned to Stiles's locker, prying the metal door open until he had thrown it on the floor behind him. He didn't have time for subtlety when his best friends were both missing, and the only way he could find Stiles was by scent, he just had to hope that wherever Stiles was they could find Kinsey there too.

"You're gonna find them by scent?" Isaac asked.

"Yeah, we both are." Scott agreed, throwing the other beta one of Stiles's lacrosse boots while he held one of the boy's flannels that he had been wearing before the game in his hand.

"But how come you get his shirt and I get a shoe?"

Scott hadn't had a chance to justify why he wasn't willing to sniff one of Stiles's shoes, he had felt a stare on him from across the room, and sure enough, he had looked up to see Derek stood in the middle of the room with his hands behind his back, silently watching them. Scott quickly nudged the taller wolf again, turning his attention from the smelly shoe to the Alpha who stood in the room. He waited until he had both of their attentions to speak.

"We need to talk." Derek bluntly spoke.

"All of us." Peter grinned, stepping out from behind his nephew with a smile.

Scott couldn't comprehend what was happening in front of him, he struggled to find the words as he looked between Derek and Peter continuously. The last time he checked, Peter was burnt to a crisp and dead outside of the Hale house with his throat ripped out on the night of the formal. He wasn't in a state to be standing in the locker room like he was now, in practically perfect condition. Unless ghosts were now a part of Beacon Hills, it couldn't be true.

"What the hell is this?" Scott spat out, it was all he could say.

"You know, I thought the same thing when I saw you talking to Gerard at the Sheriff's station."

"Okay, hold on. He, he threatened to kill my mom. And I had to get close to him. What was I supposed to do?"

"I'm gonna go with Scott on this one," Peter spoke up, now that people could hear him again he felt it was necessary to add his opinion. "Have you seen his mom? She's gorgeous"

Isaac raised a brow at the wolf, he wasn't sure who the hell it was, but everyone else seemed to. All he could tell was that the man was a werewolf, he could sense it on him. Both Derek and Scott snapped at the former Alpha to shut up, not the response Peter had been expecting for his first comment since coming back from the dead. He wasn't impressed, the two had gained a lot more attitude since his death and that wasn't a good thing, as he showed by the roll of his eyes. A confused Isaac couldn't stand around and witness the conversation anymore without asking who this suspicious person was, he tried to be discreet by whispering it to Scott. But when the wolf had introduced Peter as Derek's uncle and the person who tried to kill them all, resulting in him being set on fire and his throat being slashed out by Derek he hadn't been quiet.

After that, beautiful, introducing Peter waved at the young wolf with a smile across his face which Isaac hesitantly returned. He wasn't sure how someone who had been both set on fire and slashed in the throat was alive either, but by Scott's reaction, he was glad to see he wasn't the only one a little confused in that department.

"How is he alive?" Scott asked.

"Look, the short version is, he knows how to stop Jackson. And maybe how to save him."

The two young wolves looked at one another, any other time that would have been compelling, maybe even enough for them to agree to whatever conditions Peter was bound to have, but, of course, Jackson was already dead, as they told the two Hale's. Both of them had been taken by surprise to find that out, even after hearing the tale of what had happened on the field they were stunned to hear he was dead.

"Okay, why is no one taking that as good news?" Isaac questioned, still quite lost.

"Because if Jackson is dead, it didn't just happen. Gerard wanted it to happen." Peter retorted.

"But why?" Derek asked his uncle.

"Well, that's exactly what we need to figure out. And something tells me that window of opportunity is closing." Peter explained as he stepped towards Scott and Isaac. A weary Isaac looked at Scott, silently questioning whether they were even going to entertain the idea of owing the suspicious wolf a favor if he did in fact help them. They did need his help, there was no denying that, but if he had done something to be burnt alive, Isaac wasn't sure the wolf could be trusted. What if he tried to kill all of them again? Scott considered it for a moment as he silently stared at Peter, occasionally, he would look back to Derek who nodded, suggesting that the two do take him up on his offer to help. That was what had made Scott open to hearing the wolf out. And whatever conditions would come with him helping them, there had to be one. "And I'd quite like to find out who has kidnapped my daughter."

"Daughter?" Both Scott and Isaac mumbled in confusion. And then the pin dropped. "Oh my-"

Stiles stood before the two wolves, looking up at them as they struggled in the restrains of the electrical-wired duct tape, he tried to build the courage to rip it off, but after being beaten to a pulp by his best friend/crushes grandfather, he wasn't exactly in the best state. Physically or mentally. He could feel the bruising beginning to develop along his cheekbone, the pain creating a tingling sensation in his entire face. But he tried to concentrate on the two wolves in front of him. Erica and Body had been kidnapped too, unlike himself, Gerard had taken it a step further than beating them to a pulp, he had tied them up, placed duct tapes over their mouth to silence them while they were left like sitting ducks with electricity pulsing through their veins. Right now, he felt as though he owed it to them to man up and just pull the duct tape off of their mouths, even if it electrocuted him slightly, the phrase "ripping off the band-aid" came to mind. He used it to try and make the situation seem better than it was, but he couldn't lie to himself or the wolves in front of him, at least not that much.

The two had been looking at him with tears in their eyes for much too long, only worsening the guilt that he felt inside of him. If only he had learned to shut his mouth sooner then he wouldn't have gotten beaten up and knocked out by Gerard, he could have built up this courage much sooner. Maybe the three of them would have even figured a way to break out of the basement of the Argent home by now, but no, he had to try and get the last word. He had to insult the man's age, he liked to think that in the future, when/if the three of them got out of here, he would be proud for getting one last insult in before everything had gone dark. Kinsey would probably appreciate him slipping in that small insult about the man's age too, especially when she found out all of the bad things that he had done tonight.

Shaking off all of the negative thoughts, and even doing a small jog on the spot Stiles warmed himself up to touch the electrified duct tape, how bad could it be? It was just a small electric shock again, it wasn't like the last time he touched it the entire house began to flicker in and out of the darkness. In any other situation, Erica and Boyd would have screamed at him to just do it, but they couldn't and frankly, with all the pain they were already feeling, they weren't sure that they wanted to add to it. But they just wanted the duct tape off.

"Okay. I'm ready. Woo! I've got this." The boy pumped himself off, reaching his arm out to the duct tape before quickly snatching it back again, still hesitant to touch the wolves. "Okay. This time. This time for definite. Come on, Stiles. Woo!" Stiles closed his eyes as he harshly ripped off the tape from Erica's mouth, a high-pitched yelp escaping his mouth while a small painful scream escaped the blonde girls. Now all he had to do was the same for Boyd. He looked at the much larger wolf, who right now seemed vulnerable, but he couldn't help but feel that when he pulled the tape off of his mouth and hurt him that he would have another punch landed on his face. Even if the wolf was still restrained at the wrists, he remained with that fear. "You're not going to hit me if I do this, right?" The boy asked, hesitantly reaching for the duct tape on Boyd's mouth. Though the wolf shook his head, he still doubted his chances.

He took a few seconds to build up the courage once again, giving himself another few "woos" before he ripped the tape off of Boyd's mouth, a much larger scream coming from his mouth than what had Erica's. Unlike the girls, his scream had caused the lights to flicker once again, Stiles made sure to take a large step back from the two wolves as they caught their breaths, he still doubted the chances of not being punched by the larger wolf.

"Stiles," Erica muttered breathlessly, a slight groan to her voice as another wave of electricity pulsed through her body. The boy looked at her with a raised brow, no longer flinching from the fear that Boyd would knock him unconscious somehow. "Kinsey's... Over... There." She said breathlessly, another pained groan with every word she mumbled to him.

It seemed to take a few seconds for him to put the girl's breathless words together, repeating them over in his head to comprehend it before he realized what she said. Erica nodded behind her to the far side of the room, a much darker corner of the basement to where they stood, until now, he hadn't had the time to pay attention to that side of the room. Not between getting beaten up and trying to help the wolves in the slightest. Surely enough, when he had finally looked over to that side of the room he could see the brunette girl resting against the wall, her eyes closed as she lay unconscious. All the time that he had been looking onto the field for the girl this must have been where she had been, lying unconscious in the basement of her own family home, probably waiting for someone to notice that she had been gone. How out of character it was for her to just disappear without telling anyone where she was going. But no, none of them had noticed, it had taken him being knocked unconscious and kidnapped for her to be found. If Gerard hadn't picked him as another victim who knew how long she could have been lying there waiting to be found.

Stiles rushed over to the girl placing both of his hands on her shoulder, shaking her sightly. "Kins? Kinsey, can you hear me?" The boy asked, but she remained still.

Chris was standing in the room of his niece, the room that had been untouched for just over a week now, but it felt like forever. It was bound to feel like that after the girl had been living with him for years. He hadn't quite figured out how to cope without seeing her skipping around his home after seeing it every day for all of those years. All the surfaces in her room had collected dust, her wardrobe was almost empty other than the few items of clothing that she hadn't had the room to pack in her duffel bag. All he could think as he stood looking at the sparse room was how disappointed Victoria would be in him for not trying harder to make her stay, she would have wanted him to speak up, maybe even force her to stay, anything other than doing what he had done. Absolutely nothing.

As he stood in the room the lights began to flicker over his head, for the third or fourth time since he and Allison had gotten home from hunting. He wasn't sure what his daughter and father had planned, both of them had put in an extra effort to keep him out of the loop. Curious, the man walked to the room next door hoping to find his daughter alone, prepared to talk and in a much better mood than what she had been while out hunting. He hoped to find out what Gerard had planned to do with their two runaway wolves in the basement, but rather than that he found the two together already, quickly ending their discussion when they had seen him in the doorway. He never thought he would see a similarity between his daughter and his father, until a month ago the two hadn't seen each other since Allison was a toddler, yet now as the two looked at him with a smirk the two had never been so alike. It had become clear to him that without Kinsey the entire house was falling apart, Allison wasn't herself and Gerard was taking over.

He needed to get her to talk some sense into Allison before it was taken too far.

"I saw the lights flicker," Chris announced, standing in the doorway.

"Probably just one of our guests making themself comfortable downstairs." Gerard smiled through his words before turning to his granddaughter. "Get some sleep if you can. I have a feeling the next 24 hours are going to be eventful."

Gerard walked towards the door where his son stood, ready to leave the conversation there, he had said what he needed to say, he had given Chris the warning that he needed that what he had seen from Allison tonight he would be seeing much more of. Before the man was able to squeeze past him Chris slammed his hand on the doorframe, blocking his father with his arm, unlike Gerard he wasn't prepared to leave it there.

"You gonna tell me what happened at the game?"

"Didn't you hear?" Gerard asked. "We won."

With a snarl in his tone, Chris told the man what he meant, though Gerard already knew he was referring to Jackson. He couldn't be referring to anything else. He didn't know about one of the hunters kidnapping Stiles in the process of the lights going out on the field, and he certainly didn't know about them taking Kinsey after barely passing halftime. They had made sure of that, by the time that he and Allison had returned from hunting the two runaway wolves Kinsey was already passed out in the basement. Maybe Gerard hadn't meant to hit the girl so hard that she hadn't woken up yet, but with the plans they made, it couldn't hurt that she was out a little bit longer than originally intended for her.

Gerard walked out of the room with a smile, he knew that his message was clearer than ever to his son, he didn't need to emphasize how they had won tonight. Or what else he had in store for all of Beacon Hills. With more anger running through him than ever Chris continued to march into his daughter's room where the girl stood at her dresser, removing her gloves as though she had done nothing wrong. She hadn't almost killed two of her fellow classmates. She hadn't been the one to come up with the idea of kidnapping Kinsey. She was innocent, in her eyes at least.

"You need something?" Allison asked, refusing to even look at her father as she spoke. She didn't need to see that look of disappointment in his eyes, frankly, she didn't care about it.

"I want you to step aside and let us handle this."

"You're kidding, right?"

"One of your friends is dead," Chris said bluntly.

"Because of Derek," Allison argued back. "How do you think Jackson became that thing in the first place? Kate, Mom, Jackson."

"What about Scott? What if he dies too?"

Allison scoffed in disbelief. "Since when did you care about Scott?"

Chris shook his head, he didn't think he would have to say the words for his daughter to know that what he cared about was her, it always had been. All he had ever done was to protect her because he cared, even before she knew about the supernatural he had made his best efforts to keep her safe. All of the times he had snuck out of the house in the middle of the night with a duffel bag to go hunting, all of the secrets and lies he had had to tell, keeping her and Kinsey as far away from Gerard as possible in case something like this happened. He thought once the two of them had learned about the supernatural and had unraveled all of the lies that he, Victoria, and Kate had told all of those years that they would have seen and understood that. At least once all of the anger had worn off, which he thought Allison had gotten through, maybe not so much Kinsey, she didn't particularly handle negative emotions well.

"If you're going to start quoting from the list of the top five things a parent should say to their child every day, why don't you start with... "I'm proud of you", because I am doing exactly what you wanted." Allison snapped at the man.

"No, Allison. You're doing what he wants. We all are." Chris sighed, returning the favor of not looking at his daughter while speaking. "You should have left when Kinsey did, she was smart to get away from him. Maybe then-"

"I'm tired. I just really want to pass out, okay?" Allison interrupted the man, she didn't want to hear about all the praise her cousin would receive, she had had quite enough of that in her life. "Besides, Kinsey was a coward for leaving when she did. She never could face anything, she's never been able to pick a side. Maybe if she did she could have avoided what happened to her."

Chris turned to his daughter who sat on her bed, Allison had dropped her gloves as well as her face when she realized what she had said. One of the main things that Gerard had told her not to do was tell her father about Kinsey, if he knew what they had done to her their entire plan would fall apart. He would put an end to it, a notch in their entire plan. Kinsey would be awake and out of the basement ready to fight against them, ready to protect Derek and his pack because for some reason she had convinced herself that she needed to protect anyone and everyone, even those who didn't deserve it. All of the things Gerard had warned her about that they were trying to avoid desperately and she had slipped it out, just because of a little anger and jealousy.

After prying more information out of his daughter who couldn't control the word vomit now she had begun spilling the details Chris rushed downstairs to the basement hoping that his daughter and her stupidity hadn't caused too much harm to his niece, as well as Stiles, who he had only just found out was also being kept downstairs as a hostage. At least that was the title the two of them had gained until Allison and Gerard got what they wanted from the next 24 hours. Chris had swung the door open, startling the three in the basement, who were prepared for another round of beatings from Gerard for all of the commotion caused when Stiles ripped off the duct tape from their mouths.

Chris had found his niece barely conscious as she lay lifeless in Stiles's arms, still trying to figure out what had happened to her, barely able to open her eyes when she had heard her uncle's voice calling her name in a panic. He pulled the girl out of Stiles's arms pulling her into a tight hug, holding her closer than ever, still in disbelief that his own daughter was capable of doing this, and especially to Kinsey. What had happened to the two of them? Where had it all gone so wrong? He wasn't sure why he asked that, he knew the answer, moving to Beacon Hills was where it had all begun.

"Stiles, I think you should go home. I've got it from here, I'm sure your father's worried sick." Chris suggested to the boy, he wasn't sure how the Sheriff would react to the bright red/purple bruise on his son's face, but he couldn't keep the boy here until it had gone down. "Trust me, when she's awake properly she will come and see you." The man reassured him, nodding down at the weak girl in his arms who didn't even flinch at his words. He had no doubt that when she did come to her senses the first thing she would do was ask about Stiles, and even though he didn't necessarily agree with her going and visiting him when she would most definitely wake up with a concussion he would much rather she be with him than wherever Allison and Gerard were going to be. With Stiles, he could almost guarantee her safety.

·❥·

Kinsey stood outside of the closed bedroom door, staring at it as she wondered whether she would be doing the right thing when she finally built up the courage to knock on it. The conversation she was about to have had already been delayed by an hour longer than she had originally intended, but it had taken her that extra hour to come to a final decision, still, she remained unsure about it, but she was more confident than when she had first begun thinking about it. Part of the hour had been spent convincing her uncle Chris that she was capable of driving to the Stilinski house without passing out at the wheel, which even after he had deemed her clear of a concussion hadn't been easy. But she had managed to do it, by the skin of her teeth. Her heart pounded in her chest as she stood at the door, she knew that once she knocked on it, once she spoke the words that she had been rehearsing the entire drive over that things would change, more than she would like. But it was a necessary change, she couldn't have it any other way. She just hoped he would understand that. Just speaking to Sheriff Stilinski when she had knocked on the front door the brunette had almost broken down into tears, but she knew she couldn't when she had to follow the story. The one that her uncle Chris had created for her and Stiles to explain their disappearance and the bruises on the boy's face.

The brunette still remained unbeknownst to just how bad the damage on Stiles's face was, when she had truly come to her senses, lying in her bed she couldn't remember laying in the boy's arms when Chris had found them in the basement. And with that, she couldn't remember the bruise that her uncle described vaguely, more so for her sake than for the sake of time. The damage she was about to see on his face was just one of the things that would make this decision even more real to her, more painful, and more justified.

With a deep breath, Kinney knocked on the bedroom door softly, barely audible. But it was clear Stiles had heard the knock when he shouted that he was fine, only his response to the knock was meant for his dad, not her. Obviously, his father had been checking on him a lot since he had come back from being kept a hostage in her basement. He probably wasn't expecting a visit from her any time soon, even if her uncle had reassured him that when she was able to she would be there, she couldn't blame him for doubting she would be here so soon. Even she thought it was something that she wouldn't be able to do until tomorrow with the way Chris had been acting. The girl knocked on the door again, this time Stiles hadn't replied so quickly, but she had heard the irritated huff he had let out at the sound.

"Oh, come on, Dad. How many times..." Stiles's sentence was cut off when he saw the girl standing on the opposite side of the door with a slight glisten in her eyes from the tears.

"Hi." She mumbled.

"Hi." He stammered back, holding onto the door, he needed it to keep him stable after seeing the girl standing in front of him. With how she had looked a few hours ago he wasn't sure he would see her in her usual state for a long time.

"Your dad let me in."

"You were staying here, remember?" Stiles asked, his question was genuine. For someone who had been knocked unconscious for so long he wondered if her memory was intact, she looked fine. Better than fine, but he knew that more lay beneath the skin, it always did.

Kinsey nodded that she remembered that small detail, but after what had happened tonight it would have felt wrong to waltz in the house even if she had been sleeping here. She couldn't find any words to speak, she was too focused on the large red welt across his cheek, his split lip. Everything that her own blood had done to him. Because of her, it was her fault he ended up like this, she knew that. There was no denying that it was her fault. Until tonight, her uncle had believed that the two of them were together until she finally confessed the truth that it was all a lie, a facade to cover up Allison's relationship with Scott. The man couldn't even find it within himself to be mad at her, he couldn't blame her for creating a lie when it was all he and her mother had ever done to her. Unless Allison had too confessed that their relationship was a lie, Gerard would have too believed that Stiles was dating his granddaughter, thus convincing him that he needed to be claimed as a victim tonight too. It was her fault that he ended up beaten to a pulp in that basement. If only she had found it within herself, to be honest for once in her life and less like her mother.

Her staring hadn't been discreet, she couldn't help herself. Stiles knew that she was looking at the welt on his face, the cut on his lip, and even after reassuring her that he was fine, that it was nothing, she continued to stare at him with guilt and disgust. Still telling herself that it was her fault he ended up like this. Any second thoughts she was having about what she wanted to say to the boy tonight had faded, it killed her to know that she would be saying it, but seeing how to hurt he was made it all the more clear that what Stiles needed was to get away from her and all the drama that her family name and inheritance bought.

"Do you want to come in?" Stiles asked, he wasn't sure how long he could deal with standing in the doorway while she looked at him like that. He understood now what she meant when she said she hated pitiful looks, they really didn't have a nice appeal. The brunette nodded, slipping past him, stopping in the middle of the room as she tried to figure out how she would begin the dreaded conversation. "How you doing?" The boy asked, choosing to be the first to speak.

"Well..." Kinsey began with a large sigh. "I was kidnapped by my own grandfather and thrown into the basement of our home. Jackson's dead. And apparently, the psychopath gene is hereditary in the Argent family. But I don't have a concussion, so I guess that's a positive, huh?"

As soon as those words had come out of her mouth the girl had felt like an absolute idiot, shaking her head at herself. She stood feeling sorry for herself and the family she had been born into while Stiles stood there listening to her while the vibrant bruise across his face continued to grow. When she thought about it, compared to him, she had escaped unsaved, she had a dull headache, that was the extent of what she had been left with tonight. He would be left with the weft across his cheek that was sure to last a few weeks, as well as the trauma that Gerard will have caused him by having him kidnapped and held hostage. The girl sat down on his bed as she laughed at herself and her patheticness, burying her head in her hands. As soon as she had sat down the waterworks had begun, she couldn't stop them. Not because she felt sorry for herself, or because of what had happened to Stiles tonight, but what was about to come from that.

She'd heard his footsteps receded down the wooden flooring that lined the hallway, she couldn't blame him for walking out of the room while she cried, she wished that she was able to do the same, but she had the burden of being sensitive to everything. He was probably sick of seeing her cry, she was sick of seeing herself cry, he had to be too. It always seemed to be him around whenever the waterworks began.

"Hey, sorry, I didn't have any issues, so, uh..." Stiles stammered as he sat down beside her. She raised her head to see the boy holding an entire roll of toilet paper in his hand for her to wipe the tears that ran down her cheeks.

The girl smiled, pulling off some of the tissue to wipe her eyes as she apologized for how much of a mess she was, as she always seemed to be. But as always, he never seemed to mind as he sat looking at her waiting for her to resume to her usual self whether it took some words of comfort from him or not. Tonight seemed like one of those nights where his words of wisdom wouldn't be required, she just had that feeling. As the two sat on the bed Kinsey felt as a phone vibrated beneath her, she knew it was Stiles, she had left hers with Lydia in the case that Chris decided to call repeatedly to check up on her. Kinsey pulled out the phone from underneath her, immediately seeing Scott's name repeated on the bright screen.

"You have 17 missed messages from Scott." She said, holding out the phone to him.

"I know." Stiles nodded.

"You're ignoring him?"

Stiles shook his head in disagreement. He wasn't purposely ignoring Scott, he just hadn't been in the mood for company whether it was through a cellphone or in person. At least not until he had seen her on the other side of his bedroom door, he could never turn down her company.

Kinsey chose not to dwell on the subject, she could gather the reason why he hadn't answered Scott, it was probably the same reason that she hadn't answered his texts either. No matter how many times she had read the word urgent in each and every one of them. Scott was capable of handling things on his own for a couple more hours, he was the strongest out of all of them, in more ways than just strength. The brunette girl began looking around the room for something to bring up but she began that conversation, she wasn't ready to begin that yet. Her eyes scoured the room until spotting a Macy's bag on his dresser, she couldn't help her curiosity as she stood up to investigate the bag. Upon approaching the dresser there was much more to investigate than just a bag from Macy's, all of the women's jewelry scattered over the surface seemed like a good place to start as she held one of the golden bracelets up. With a curious smile across her face she asked why exactly he had women's jewelry lying around his bedroom, considering living with him for the past week and a half, she hadn't noticed before. She tended to avoid his room at the risk of it smelling anything near the boy's locker room.

Stiles quickly jumped up from his place on the bed, flustered as he tried to think of an answer. His panic hadn't been eased as Kinsey continued holding up the jewelry to him with that look on her face, the kind of look that craved answers as she smiled.

"Uh, nothing, it's just some stuff I bought, you know, for your birthday." He mumbled.

"My birthday?" Kinsey asked with a raised eyebrow. "For me? You know that it isn't until December, right? We're in March..."

"I just- I kind of didn't know what to get you, so I just bought you, like, a bunch of stuff. Like, a lot of stuff. I wanted to be prepared." Stiles nervously laughed while the girl stood in shock. "I was gonna return anything that I didn't give to you."

Unable to speak, so flattered by the gesture all she could do was smile and laugh at him, what else was she supposed to say to someone who had begun thinking of what to buy her for her birthday nine months before it even happened? And even worse, how was she supposed to say what she had come here to say when he made gestures like that, and all she could do was tell him that by her birthday the two probably wouldn't speak because she would have distanced herself so far from him that both of them would practically be strangers. As if the past few months of knowing each other had never happened. But she chose not to go there yet as she looked around the room again, this time her eyes landed on the flat-screen TV sat beside her, he couldn't be serious. He swore that that was one gift he would most definitely be returning, an impulsive purchase he called it, which seemed like an understatement.

Their conversation was cut short as Stiles's phone vibrated again, it was clear he wasn't going to look at the message, so the girl did it herself. This time, she was glad that she had. It may just have been one of the most important messages the two of them would have ever received.

"I have to go and help, I understand if you don't want to come. But I have to." Kinsey insisted, she wasn't prepared for an argument about it, she was holding out the offer to the boy, but it seemed as though an argument was exactly what she would be receiving.

"You see, that's the problem. You don't care about getting hurt." Stiles shook his head as that festering feeling of irritation grew inside of him. "But you know how I'll feel? I'll be devastated. And if you die, I will literally go out of my freaking mind. You see, death doesn't happen to you, Kinsey. It happens to everyone around you, okay? To all the people left standing at your funeral, trying to figure out how they're gonna live the rest of their lives now without you in it, huh?" As he spoke his voice began to rise until he was shouting in the girl's face, she was left without the ability to speak once again, so taken by surprise. She didn't know where it was all coming from. "And look at my face, huh? Come on, you actually think this was meant to hurt me?"

He had only realized that he hadn't taken it so far when he had stepped forward, still shouting at the girl and she had stepped back, a terrified look across her face. The look of someone who was scared that he was going to hurt her like everyone else seemed to be doing. If her own family could hit her to the point of unconsciousness what was stopping him? He took a large step back from the girl, he was now left with that sense of speechlessness, all he could blurt out was an apology, disgusted by himself for his outburst after what she had been through. Of course, she knew about what happened with death, that it happened to other people, she had been one of those other people, twice in the past few months alone, actually.

"It's okay." Kinsey nodded. But she couldn't stop there. "I know it wasn't meant to hurt you. I know that. It was because it was to punish me. Trust me, it's all I've been able to think about."

"This- This isn't your fault." Stiles shook his head.

"Don't you get it, Stiles? It was a test. They were testing me. They wanted to know what side of this fight I was on. That night at the station, I didn't know it but I had two choices. To stay with them, to stay with Allison, and choose that side. Or to choose you. And I chose you. I chose you and it got you hurt, Stiles."

"Kinsey-"

"Gerard knew that the only way to make his message clear was through you. And now look, look at your face, Stiles. How am I supposed to live with myself knowing that because of me?" Kinsey asked. "He will keep doing it, hurting you and everyone else I care about until I'm just as much in this fight as everyone else. And I can't do that to you, Stiles. I can't risk you getting hurt because of me. You can't be near me anymore, not if this is the outcome. I'm sorry."

With nothing else to say Kinsey began walking back towards the door with tears in her eyes, Stiles tried to stop her, but she had made this decision, no matter how much it hurt her to leave without another word. To leave without fighting for whatever it was that was going on between the two of them, but if she wanted him to survive she had to sacrifice whatever that was, she couldn't be selfish. She stopped at the door, apologizing one last time before leaving, heading to the fight that she had no other choice to get involved in. Whether she got hurt like Stiles said or not, she couldn't standby while everyone else was getting hurt.

Stiles sat at his desk staring down at his phone, still receiving constant updates from Scott with every decision that was made about what would happen tonight, with the Kanima, with Gerard. Every little decision Scott tried to keep him updated on. From his updates, he now knew that not only did they have Derek on their side but Peter who had apparently been brought back from the dead by Lydia, even that shocking revelation hadn't been enough for him to reply to one of his best friends texts. As well as the two Hale wolves, Argent had now joined them too, willing to go against his own father if he had to, just like Kinsey was willing to go against Allison and her grandfather. She didn't see those kinds of good traits that run through her veins, all she saw was the bad from her mother, the parts that she was nothing like, no matter how much she told herself that she was becoming a reincarnation of the woman.

He couldn't read the texts much longer, all they were to him was a reminder that tonight he would be sitting here while Kinsey was preparing to get herself hurt in a fight that she shouldn't be fighting in. Or anyone else. None of this should have happened in the first place. There was no point in him trying to fight against the Kanima, or Gerard, or anyone else, all he was was a human, not a werewolf, reptilian creature with venomous claws or a trained hunter. Just as he threw his phone onto his desk his father appeared at the door, with the amount the man had been checking up on him he didn't even have to look to know he was there, he could sense it.

"She left, huh?"

Stiles nodded solemnly. "Yeah."

"So, was there, uh... Anything there?"

Though his son had once told him that the two were already dating he could see straight through that facade, many people couldn't, but he knew his son and he had gotten to know Kinsey quite well too. He knew that the two of them were nothing more than two teenagers who had convinced themselves they were nothing more than best friends to disguise everything that they really felt beneath all of that. If it were anything like him and Claudia, it was because they were both scared. Unlike him and his late wife, the two had been through a lot more, both had experienced a loss at a young age, they were bound to be more scared than anyone else to let more people in, it was just another person for the two of them to lose.

"No." He shook his head. "No, she doesn't feel that way."

"Ah." The man nodded, sitting down beside his son. He didn't believe that for a moment, but this was an opportunity for him to teach his son a lesson, to have a good old father-to-son heart to heart. "Listen... I know that getting beaten up, and with what happened to Jackson, has got you pretty shaken. But be happy about one thing. The game. You were amazing."

Stiles scoffed, a faint smile across his face. "Thanks, Dad."

"No, I mean it. Look, it was pretty much over. And then you got the ball, and you started running. You scored, and the tide just turned. And you scored again and again." The Sheriff laughed lightly, never had he been so filled with pride as he had been tonight, slightly more as he thought back on the game. "You weren't just the MVP of the game. You were a hero."

"No, I'm not a hero, Dad."

"You were tonight." The man disagreed, tapping his son on the shoulder as he walked away leaving Stiles to think about what he said. Stiles had turned back to his desk, prepared to do just that until his father had stopped at the door. "Oh, and by the way... The girl who does feel that way?" He asked, Stiles turning to him with a raised brow. "There's a certain redhead waiting on our porch who I think would disagree."

-☽○☾-

With her hands dug into the pockets of her black leather jacket, Kinsey approached the warehouse, that since hosting the rave, had been fairly abandoned. Much like the rest of the places in this town where people had been brutally murdered by the Kanima. According to Scott's constant updates that he was sending hoping he would get a reply from her or Stiles this was the place that she needed to be. After the rave she hadn't expected to be here again, rusty old warehouses didn't have an appeal to her taste, nor did places that were once a crime scene for a murder. But this town was running out of places that didn't fall into that criteria. The brunette had no weapons with her for the fight, she was left completely empty-handed, she hadn't had time to go home and grab all of the weapons that she felt were necessary for the fight. She hoped that between the three hunters who were here at least one of them would be able to spare a weapon.

Her footsteps had been somewhat slow as she edged closer to the building, she couldn't see Chris's SUV parked outside, nor her grandfathers, for a moment she wondered if she had missed the fight, or somehow gotten here earlier than everyone else. Until she heard the familiar hissing and shrieking of a particular reptilian creature from inside the building in front of her. Then she had no choice but to rush inside, even without a weapon.

As Kinsey rushed into the building she was met with the sight of the fully transformed Kanima throwing her uncle across the cement building as if it were nothing to him, like he had all the strength in the world. Even though just a few hours ago he had been dead. That was something one of Scott's updates had told her. Kinsey had moved to rush after the man, to act as his backup before she was grabbed, a set of arms wrapping around her like a straight jacket, they were too strong for her to fight. While she struggled, unable to turn and look behind her to see who had been the one to grab her she watched as Derek jumped into the fight to defend Chris, followed by Scott and Isaac.

"Stay still." Peter groaned at the fidgeting girl, trying to hold her tighter until she listened.

As soon as she had heard that voice she had no problem stopping the fight she had been putting up, frankly, she was too frozen in horror to continue fighting against his grip. Apparently, she had missed the part of Scott's text updates that announced that Peter had come back from the dead and somehow with a single sign of when they had burnt him, you know, to death. How exactly had he come back from the dead? Was he ever dead? She felt as though she had seen a ghost as she stared at the man from over her shoulder, trying to figure out if this was somehow another hallucination of hers.

"What the hell?" Kinsey finally blurted out.

It seemed appropriate to her considering she was talking to a man who was supposed to be dead, apparently, tonight was the night of the walking dead. First Jackson and now Peter, was she going to turn to look at the fight and see her mother caught in the middle of it too? Or maybe Victoria would be there baking some cookies like she always used to?

Another thing that Scott had failed to leave out of his updates to the Argent was the truth about the identity of her father, the truth he was still struggling to believe himself. He couldn't see why Peter would lie about Kinsey being his daughter, but the man wasn't trustworthy, it could just be a game to make them think he was on their side. Scott, Derek, Isaac, and Peter himself agreed to tell Kinsey over a text message wasn't appropriate, she deserved better than being told that her father wasn't only alive, but he was in Beacon Hills and the man they knew to be Peter Hale. And in the middle of a fight? That would be asking for trouble.

Not even Chris had found out the news of who had fathered his niece, whose poisonous blood she stemmed from. The way they saw it, all Chris would hear is that his niece was born to the enemy, arguably, their biggest enemy, That also seemed like a valid reason not to mention it to the man. It was shocking enough that he was willing to fight on their side compared to his father and daughter's side, nobody could guarantee he would still want to do that if he found out about Kinsey. He may just take it worse than the girl herself, and that was bound to be bad.

"You're not getting involved."

"Says who?" Kinsey snarled. She wasn't going to take the demands of Peter Hale, not after all of the things he had done to her and her friends during his time of being the Alpha. She didn't take demands off of most people, not even the ones whose care she was in, maybe occasionally she would listen to her uncle Chris if he had a valid reason. Other than that, she was her own person, and that person refused to listen to the likes of someone who deserved to be referred to as Satan in a V-neck.

"Your father," Peter announced.

Kinsey's struggling to get out of the man's arms had stopped, she was too shocked to fight against his restraints anymore. How did he know who her father was, and better yet, how had he had recent enough communication with the man to know that he wouldn't want her to be a part of this fight between two packs, a group of hunters and a Kanima? She couldn't help but stare at the man, trying to find a way to ask all of the questions that had suddenly invaded her head. There were too many to ask at once, if she were to try and ask them all she was sure that none of them would make sense. Peter let go of the girl, he could tell that after dropping the father bomb on her she wasn't going to be able to move for at least the next few minutes. As the brunette girl stared at him he tilted his head forward at her, holding her stare, waiting for the pin to drop as it had for Scott and Isaac just a few hours ago.

"Are you..." The girl began to ask, before shrugging it off, it was too absurd. But Peter held that stare, no matter how much she shook off the thought that Peter Hale was her father. "No. No. No, no, no, no. No." Kinsey repeated, Peter becoming slightly more offended with each and everyone that she said. "Now isn't the time for jokes, Peter. This isn't funny."

"I don't joke, Kinsey. I'm not a funny guy."

Kinsey tried to find something to say, but how was she supposed to know what to say to someone claiming to be her father? And not just anyone, but Peter Hale, someone who a few months ago was the big bad Alpha tormenting her, locking her in schools, almost killing her in a video store, and not to mention, he ripped out her mother's throat right in front of her. Never had she been left speechless as many times as she had today, everything that everyone had said to her seemed to come out of the blue. All that the brunette girl could do was shake her head and refuse to believe anything that came out of Peter Hale's mouth, she turned towards the fight that she should be in rather than listening to the former-Alphas lies only to see Isaac drop to the floor clutching onto his stomach revealing Allison standing behind him with two Chinese ring dagger held high in the air, dripping with his blood.

She screamed the girl's name, rushing straight into the middle of the fight, too quick for Peter to grab her like had had the first time, and he wasn't prepared to run after her and show his presence yet. The Argent's still didn't know he was alive, and right now their fight needed to be against Jackson and Gerard, and only them. Knowing Peter was alive may just change that.

As Allison held the Chinese ring daggers over Isaac's body ready to finish what she had started Kinsey grabbed her wrists, keeping them in the air as she stood in between the girl and Isaac who lay helplessly at her feet. Scott had tried to stop the girl from taking it any further too, but all he had been able to do was tell the girl to stop, hoping that she would listen, he hadn't been close enough to the older Argent to grab her as Kinsey had. He hadn't even seen the girl come through the warehouse, let alone be able to reach Allison as quickly as she had. But he didn't have the motivation that the girl did, she had the risk of Isaac getting hurt, worse than he already was, or maybe even killed. He didn't have the same desperate adrenaline pumping through his veins.

While her hands had been wrapped around Allison's wrist Kinsey felt a tightening around her throat, she desperately took a gasp for breath, letting go of her cousin's wrist to try and pry the scaly hands that had begun blocking her airway away from her. She wasn't the only one who tried to release themselves from the restraint of a scaly hand, Allison had been grabbed by the Kanima too, leaving both of them struggling as he effortlessly raised them up in the air with the grip on their throats.

"Not yet, Sweetheart." Gerard's voice echoed through the empty warehouse.

"What are you doing?" Allison asked as the man stepped out of the shadows. This wasn't part of their plan, they had been over it many times, this certainly wasn't part of it.

"He's doing what he came here to do." Scott deadpanned.

"Then you know," Gerard stated, it wasn't a question. Scott was smarter than he sometimes made himself out to be, he had clearly caught onto what was happening. Though Allison on the other hand was still confused as she asked what the wolf was talking about, still gasping for air underneath the Kanima's scaly hands. "It was the night outside the hospital wasn't it, when I threatened your mother. I knew I saw something in your eyes. You could smell it, couldn't you?"

Isaac looked up from the ground, his own blood smeared all over him. Before he spoke, he looked at the girl wrapped in the Kanima's hands, he didn't have to speak for her to know that he had had the same thought as she had. She thought back to the animal clinic when he and Scott had been able to smell the dog dying, and apparently, humans were no different. Isaac had confirmed her thoughts when he stated aloud that the man was dying, for those in the room who didn't have the senses of him and the other wolves.

"I am. I have been for a while now." Gerard agreed. "Unfortunately, science doesn't have a cure for cancer yet. But the supernatural does."

A tear began to fall from Allison's soft doe eyes as she looked at her grandfather, only now did she see how she had been betrayed by him, she was just another one of his pawns for him to get what she wanted. And he had manipulated her into doing it. All of the things she had done which she would have usually agreed against, fought against, she had done because of him. She had hunted two werewolves, almost to their deaths, despite loving one herself. She had Kinsey, her own flesh and blood, someone who she saw as a sister, kidnapped. He had even gotten her here prepared to kill Derek and anyone who got in her way, even if were the likes of Kinsey and Scott, he had brainwashed her and now he had dropped her. The Kanima's grip around both of the girl's necks tightened again, more than ever until both of them were gasping desperately for air to fill their lungs. Tears down both of their eyes. It had gone too far now, Kinsey knew it would take a miracle for her to get out of this alive, she was just a few seconds away from being strangled to death by the Kanima.

"You monster." Chris snarled at his father, never had he been so disappointed to see where he had been born from, who he had been born from. Gerard didn't find the comment offensive, even coming from his own son, instead, he found it the perfect opportunity to state that he wasn't quite a monster yet. "You'll kill them too?" The man asked, swelling up with tears himself as he looked at the two helpless girls, throughout the entire warehouse they knew if they reacted then the Kanima would kill them both in a split second.

"When it comes to survival, I'd kill my own son!" Gerard insisted without hesitation or remorse, he meant every word he said. He would kill everyone left in his family willingly. From his own son to his two granddaughters who he was already seconds away from having killed, he didn't care if he would be the only one with the Argent name left. He had lost a daughter already, his wife, everyone else in his family, he didn't care about those who stood around him. "Scott."

As if it had already been discussed, thought out, and planned Scott seemed to know exactly what the man wanted him to do. He tamed his werewolf side and began walking to the Alpha who lay on the floor after his fight with the Kanima, Allison looked at the beta with a sorrowful look, though she had betrayed him and everyone else she hoped that he wouldn't follow through with making Gerard a monster. None of them would survive if he was given the power of a werewolf. Even now, when he was nothing more than a dying old man he was winning against all of them, what would he do with all of that power? By his neck, Scott pulled Derek up from the ground giving him no other choice but to comply with what Gerard wanted.

"Scott, don't." Kinsey tried to plead with the beta, her plead had only caused Jackson to squeeze her throat once more, making it clear that he could kill her whenever he wanted, that it would take nothing more than a little bit of pressure. "Don't do this."

"You know that he's gonna kill me right after," Derek added to her argument, the argument that his apparent niece had provided. "You'll be an Alpha."

"That's true," Gerard confirmed for the beta. "But I think he already knows that, don't you, Scott? He knows that the ultimate prize is Allison. Do this small task for me, and they can be together. You are the only piece that doesn't fit Derek. And in case you haven't learned yet there is just no competing with young love."

Derek pleaded to his beta once more for him to not follow Gerard's orders, even if he was offering the wolf happiness with Allison, the man still couldn't be trusted. There was nothing stopping him from having the two girls killed as well as Derek when he had gotten what he wanted from Scott. The beta should know by now that the man didn't have a heart, he talked about caring about people's word, but he wouldn't keep his own. No matter how much Derek pleaded, Scott insisted that this was what he had to do. He titled back the wolf's head, the Alpha unable to fight against it as his mouth was opened wide revealing his large canines, ready to bite Gerard and give him everything he wanted.

Kinsey and Allison quickly turned their heads away, unable to watch as they heard the sound of the bite crunching on Gerard's arm, the man's pained scream echoing through the quiet and cold warehouse. Once what needed to be done was done Scott dropped Derek back onto the floor while Gerard held up his bitten arm in pride, laughing in victory. The two girls turned to look back at their grandfather, both of their mouths dropping in horror as they saw the black liquid oozing from his bite, dripping down the arm that he held high in the air. Gerard was too filled with pride to notice it for himself first, only when he saw that the horrified look from his granddaughters had spread across the entire room did he realize that something was wrong.

"What is this? What did you do?" Gerard snarled at the Alpha on the floor.

"Everyone always said Gerard had a plan," Scott announced. "But I had one too."

Scott revealed that once he had smelt the cancer on Gerard he had soon been able to figure out what the man was after, the man had never been here just for his daughter's funeral or to help with his son's werewolf problem, or even to begin the training for both of his granddaughters. His intention had always been receiving the bite of an Alpha to cure his cancer. Scott and Deaton had conspired to switch Gerard's pills with capsules filled with mountain ash powder, thus causing the effect that he felt now- his body violently rejecting the werewolf bite. The same black liquid began oozing from the man's eyes and nose as he looked straight at Allison and Kinsey as if either of them would help the man, even if they weren't still in the grasps of the Kanima. Gerard spewed a torrent of black goo into the air before collapsing onto the ground.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you might be an Alpha, but you're not mine."

The sound of the old man coughing, still spewing up the oozing black liquid had turned the attention from the two werewolves in the middle of the room, a beta and an Alpha, but not each other. They should have known the man couldn't have just collapsed to the ground and died, even then it couldn't be guaranteed that he would stay dead, apparently people in this town just weren't capable of staying dead. They always found their way back. Through the oozing black liquid that poured from his mouth, Gerard ordered his Kanima to kill them, to kill both of his granddaughters, to kill all of them. Just like they had killed him.

Both Kinsey and Allison were taken by surprise as Jackson lowered them to the ground, both of them finally feeling the relief of the concrete floor beneath their feet. The two brunettes looked across at one another wearily, who knew what the Kanima's next move would be? Before he was able to make a deadly move on either of them Kinsey raised her elbow, shoving it straight in the Kanima's face, but the Kanima had quickly shoved both of the girls to the floor in retaliation.

A fight didn't have a chance to break out, not when a powder blue Jeep had crashed through the walls of the warehouse, not stopping until the front of the car had collided with the Kanima that had stood in front of them like a deer in headlights. For a moment, the Kanima had stayed down on the ground, allowing Stiles to think that for a split second he had gotten him, maybe even for good. But that was short-lived as the Kanima jumped onto the hood of the Jeep causing both of the teenagers inside to scream at the top of their lungs, more so Stiles.

"Jackson!" Lydia shouted as she stood in front of the reptilian creature, not even scared of him, even when he looked like this all she saw was the boy beneath who she loved. "Jackson."

Kinsey yelled the redhead's name as she jumped off of the ground prepared to drag her best friend away from the Kanima before he killed her like he had been ready to kill the rest of them. Before she had even managed two steps she had been pulled back by Isaac, keeping her away from the redhead and the Kanima, she hadn't seen it in all of their updates but those who had known that the only way to save Jackson was through Lydia, the only person that Jackson truly loved and could be saved by. Unlike when Peter had grabbed her Kinsey didn't fight his grip, he knew that if he had pulled her away then it was for good reason, she wasn't sure when it had happened exactly, but he was on their side now. He no longer followed Derek's orders, at least not when it wasn't the right decision to be made.

The redhead held up a golden key to the Kanima as tears of fear rolled down her cheek, her hands shaking and her breaths heavy, almost a pant. But she stood her ground. The Kanima stared at the key in enchantment, it clearly meant something to that part of him that had been deeply buried beneath all of those scales. To the human part of Jackson that remained. He slowly began coming back, his reptilian eyes fading, slowly becoming less and less like the Kanima that he had become as the claws that remained reached out for the key. He held it in his hand for a moment, looking at the girl in front of him with a look of love for one last time but he accepted his fate. Jackson moved back from Lydia, knowing what he needed to do.

Seeing their chance, Peter sprung from the shadows he had been lingering in during the entire fight and Derek from the floor. Derek plunges his claws into Jackson's abdomen, Peter getting him from behind. The two wolves lifted the half-Kanima off of the floor before anyone was able to fight against it. The five teenagers who stood on the sidelines stood with slacked jaws as they watched the life slowly fade out of Jackson's blue eyes, and Lydia had the front row seat as she stood before the love of her life horrified by what she was seeing. Derek seemed to have even a slight glimmer of regret in his eyes as he killed the boy, the Kanima coughed, spitting out his last breath before he fell to his knees.

Lydia rushed forward to catch the boy as Derek stepped back, standing beside Kinsey and Isaac. Unable to speak, the two slowly stepped back, something drew them to stand beside the Alpha, as if it were a sign that despite what he had just done, they forgave him for it. They knew that he wasn't left any other options, they had tried everything to save Jackson. Derek place a hand on both of their shoulders, standing between them as they all watched Lydia and Jackson share their final goodbyes before all of this was over and she was left broken.

"Do you-" Jackson asked weakly. "Do you still-"

"I do." Lydia nodded as she cried. "I do still love you." She mumbled repeatedly.

With those words coming from the redhead Stiles looked across the warehouse to the brunette girl who stood beside Derek and Isaac, she was with them, not him where she should be. Even if his father and Lydia swore that they saw something there between the two of them, as Lydia had told him during the drive over, Kinsey couldn't see it for herself, she wouldn't allow herself to see the idea of herself and Stiles. She was pushing herself away to make sure that he didn't get hurt, but it was the thought of her pushing herself away that was hurting him the most. He cared about her arguably more than anyone, he dreaded a time if he ever had to share a final goodbye with her like Lydia had had to do with Jackson.

Jackson's eyes closed as he collapsed on the redhead's shoulder, dead. The key dropped to the floor beside them as the girl sobbed onto his dead body. With a lump in her throat Kinsey looked across the warehouse, Scott and Allison stood with intertwined hands, Chris close behind them, and Stiles stood staring at Lydia and Jackson, that was when she realized that the solemn look on his face wasn't because of her because he thought about a time when she would get so hurt that he would have to say goodbye to her. He looked that way because Lydia was his first crush, a deep crush at that, more than the two of them ever were. He didn't care about her as he cared about the redhead in front of them. Her head turned to Isaac who still stood beside her, already looking at her when she had turned to him, he offered out a comforting hand to the girl, she had hesitated a moment, before taking it.

Lydia lay Jackson down on the floor as the last bit of scales faded from him, he was truly gone, and so was the Kanima. It was over, but too many people's hearts had had to be broken in the process. The redhead wiped her remaining tears before turning around to the group that had been standing watching them solemnly, she looked at Kinsey, about to walk to her for comfort but she couldn't make it that far before she had broken down again.

Kinsey took that as her cue to step forward, breaking her and Isaac's hands apart as she approached the redhead. She wrapped her arms around the redhead, allowing her to sob into her shoulder for a split second. That was all it was able to last before they had heard the sound of claws scraping across the floor. Lydia pulled herself away from Kinsey, looking at her to see if she was the only one who had heard it too, but the brunette was too busy staring at the body on the floor with her jaw almost on the floor, tears in her eyes. Lydia spun around in time to see the wounds on his abdomen heal themselves. Jackson's eyes flashed open, a brilliant steel blue. He slowly raised from the floor, his naked silhouette in the glare of the Jeep's headlights. Kinsey slowly moved back, her hand around Lydia's wrist prepared to take the redhead with her but Lydia had removed the grip that her best friend had, unlike the brunette she wasn't scared of him or the fact he had just risen from the dead for the second time tonight.

The brunette felt as a hand intertwined with hers, this time, it was Allison who provided her a small faint smile. Kinsey returned it, standing back beside the girl. Somehow, that had been all the two needed to know all was forgiven between the two of them. A loud roar sounded from the boy who had risen from the dead, confirming that beneath the Kanima was in fact a wolf, the tale had been true. Even though all of them had read that in the bestiary the three Argent's still looked at Scott, all sharing the same look of shock across their faces.

-☽○☾-

Kinsey sat on the edge of her bed, her knees pulled up to her chest as she stared at the packed suitcase standing in the entryway of her bedroom. She couldn't believe it. Frankly, she felt disappointed in herself for giving up so easily and leaving for France for the summer, maybe even longer if they needed. Really, she knew she should have stayed in Beacon Hills with Lydia to help her in her time of need, maybe make ammends with Stiles, because she regretted every word she said to him. She didn't want to stay away from him, it would kill her to do that. And maybe she should even be staying to give her younger self what she had always wanted- a relationship with her father, even if it was Peter Hale. But she had cowered out of it, all she wanted and needed was a summer, a normal summer where she could act like a teenager and not one who had to worry about what werewolf was around the next corner.

A knock sounded at the door as Allison crept into the room, her eyes were red, clearly, her share of damage was done too. She had told Scott that she couldn't be with him and that she too was heading to France for the summer, or at least for that long. Kinsey had asked if she could tell him on her behalf too, she didn't have it in her to break it to him after what she had already had to say to Stiles. That had taken everything out of her. She couldn't do it to Scott too.

"Hey," Allison mumbled lightly, taking a seat beside the brunette. "You all packed?"

Kinsey nodded with a faint smile. "How did it go with Scott?"

"It was hard," Allison admitted. "But it was what needed to be done. I needed to let him go. I guess that's the pain of loving someone, you have to let them go sometimes."

"Yeah. I know." She mumbled with a sigh.

In the past few days since everything had been up in the air, the two had vowed to tie up their loose ends, and Scott had been the final part of that. Part of it had been spending a night with Lydia, they owed her the girly sleepover that she had dreamed about since the two of them had moved to this town. Both knew it was the last chance the three of them would have before the long summer. Part of that night had been announcing Chris's proposal, a summer in Paris, a chance to heal and train too. Allison's decision had been made, she didn't have much choice with her father going, but he had given Kinsey the choice. He knew that she may not be ready to leave yet, especially after she'd found out about Peter, it was her choice if she wanted to stay and explore the chance of getting to know the man who was her father, to make up for sixteen years of being fatherless. He knew it meant a lot to her to know that kind of information.

"So," Allison clear her throat, she wasn't sure how her question would go down with Kinsey, they hadn't been too close lately, maybe the girl wouldn't want to tell her something so personal. "You love him, huh?"

Kinsey shrugged. "I guess I do, yeah. But it's too late now." She admitted it was the first time she had truly thought about it. And now it was done, gone, her chances were ruined, once again in hopes to protect someone she had destroyed everything in her future. "Who knows, maybe one day it will work out. But right now, he deserves a normal life without me."

Another knock sounded at the door, raising both of the girl's heads as they turned to look at Chris whose expression was just as solemn as theirs. He didn't want to do this to them, but he had to be a father in this, an uncle too, he had to pull them out of Beacon Hills if he wanted them to not be destroyed by it like so many others had. Himself included. This town took everything out of people, he couldn't let them fall into that trap too. Chris didn't say a word as he walked over to the bed, sitting in between the two girls, he placed an arm around the two as they lay their heads on his shoulder. Tears wept from their eyes as they spent their final moments in Beacon Hills. Though their lives hadn't been perfect since their arrival, neither of them would have had it any other way, it had brought them some of the best experiences they had ever had. They'd met the best people they could have ever wished for. And for once, for the first time in all of their lives, the two felt as though they had a place to call home. Beacon Hills was their home. Even if the two ended up staying in France once the summer was over, the two knew that when they told people about their home, they would think of this town and the people in it.