chapter thirty two
dead on arrival

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

"IS THREE enough?"

It was the day after the PSATs and no one had heard from Malia since. Odessa Stone had left text message after text message and call after call to the girl but didn't get any response in return. The Stone felt as though this wasn't something she could simply apologize for. No matter how much she said sorry to Malia, it didn't change the fact that she, along with everyone else in the pack, left out vital information that Malia deserved to know from the beginning.

The McCall pack was no closer to finding out who the Benefactor was, and the close call at the school forced them to really take matters into their own hands. They had a plan. A very stupid and sucky plan, but a plan nonetheless.

"Depends on how many cameras they have," Stiles shrugged at Kira's question, glancing around the table. The group consisted of him, Odessa, Scott, Kira and Liam, "but I think so."

"Are we really doing this?"

Scott nodded instantly at his Beta, "we're doing it. Tonight."

"But isn't it kind of dangerous," Liam shifted his stance nervously.

Before Scott could answer, Stiles interjected firmly, "it's incredibly dangerous. And borderline idiotic."

"Have you guys done something like this before?"

Odessa tilted her head at Liam's question, breaking her silence, "something dangerous? Or something idiotic? Because it's a yes to both."

The older teens watched the Beta drop his head with wary features. His Alpha gave him a reassuring look, "you don't have to be part of it if you don't want to."

"I'm not scared," Liam firmly declared.

"Then you're borderline idiotic," the Stilinski patted the boy on his shoulder, ignoring the incredulous glance a certain blonde sent his way, "if we do this, we don't know what coming for us. You know that, right?"

Kira glanced around the table with hesitant optimism, "how do we even know something's definitely coming?"

"Because the tape from Garrett's bag said visual confirmation required," her boyfriend relayed.

"Simon said the same thing," Stiles added. From next to him, Odessa could feel a chill go down her spine at the reminder of what almost happened to the boy while the rest of them were in the vault. Simon, the instructor, almost killed Stiles but was luckily saved by Agent McCall just in time, "he couldn't get paid by The Benefactor until he had proof that you guys were dead."

"So the idea is, what if you kill someone on the dead pool, but you can't send proof?"

No matter how much Odessa disliked the plan they conjured, she couldn't help but smirk when answering Scott, "you don't get paid."

"But how does that get us any closer to The Benefactor," Liam asked, still not understanding the reasoning for the plan.

Scott raised a brow, "he still needs to know if the tarter is really dead."

"Especially if it's someone high on the list," Stiles glanced uneasily at his best friend.

"So, if he wants visual confirmation..."

"He's going to have to come get it himself."

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

Odessa Stone cringed at the screams from Melissa McCall sounding in her ears. She hated hearing the woman she grew to love as a Mother in pain, whether it was acting or not. Having to listen to the heart-wrenching wails upstairs only made Odessa's opinion about the plan stronger—it was probably the worst plan they had ever come up with. Ever.

And she wished it was her.

Looking down at the cold, pale body of Scott McCall, the blonde couldn't help but wish it was her who was sacrificing herself to catch The Benefactor. Having Scott play dead would certainly catch their attention, seeing as he was the highest on the list. But she was the second highest, with less to lose. She wished it was her instead of him.

The Ember Wolf was standing around the slab table with Stiles to her right, while Kira, her Mother and Liam circled around the table as well, silently waiting for Melissa to join them.

The doors behind them burst open, and the sound of sniffles grew louder as Melissa walked over to the group surrounding her son. The woman took a deep breath, looking over her son, "I still hate this plan. I mean this is pretty significantly terrifying. He looks dead."

Hearing her voice waver, Odessa didn't hesitate to reach for Melissa's hand and squeeze it tightly, creating the familiar white lines that traveled from Odessa's hand to hers. After a moment, Melissa's shoulders sagged in relief, feeling more out together than she did only a minute ago. The woman then weaved her fingers with Odessa's instead of them simply holding hands, wanting a firmer grip.

Noshiko, who was standing next to her daughter, gave the woman a small smile in reassurance, "give me your hand."

Melissa looked toward the girl whom she thought of as her daughter and his son's best friend, and the latter whispered, "it's okay," in encouragement, seeing the woman's hesitancy.

With her free hand, Melissa offered the other to Noshiko, who guided her hand on top of Scott's chest. The McCall woman gasped at the contact and how cold her son felt, getting worked up again. Odessa could only squeeze her hand in comfort as they all watched with bated breath as to what Noshiko wanted to show her.

After a moment, Melissa sighed heavily in relief, a small graced her lips, almost as if looking down at her son had gotten easier. She could feel his heart beating, "is that enough to keep a werewolf alive?"

"Enough for an Alpha," Noshiko couldn't help but specify, almost hinting at something.

"How much time do we have?"

"Forty-five minutes."

"What happens after that?"

"I bring him back the same way," Kira spoke up, referring to how she used her powers to put Scott in the state he was in.

Though she appreciated the response, Melissa couldn't help but reiterate, "no, I mean what happens if he stays like this longer than forty-five minutes?"

The teens glanced at each other, knowing their mistake. Noshiko seemed to catch on fairly quickly, "no one's told her?"

"What," Melissa asked, her tone more firm than before, "what happens after forty-five minutes?"

"He dies."

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

SCOTT MCCALL DEAD. PAYMENT REQUESTED.

Odessa watched Argent click send to The Benefactor with an impressed expression. They called Argent to the hospital to have a hunter on hand. What better way to catch a hunter than to use another hunter? While she thought the message did the trick, the hazel eyed boy next to her begged to differ.

"That's your assassin speak?"

"I said he's dead," Argent defended, not understanding the issue, "what more do you want?"

Odessa broke her silence, looking between the two, "I for one thought it was okay."

Her comment earned an eye twitch from Stiles before he continued his point, "it was a little dry. You could've said something like, target has been neutralized. The crow flies at midnight. That's always cool."

"Hmm," before Argent could say anything else on the matter, the computer beeped, gaining all of their attention.

VISUAL CONFIRMATION IS REQUIRED.

Seeing the reply, Stiles jumped at the opportunity to be the one to answer, but the firm look from Argent made him step back. The man sighed, before motioning for Stiles to step up to the laptop, "type this," he instructed, "visual confirmation isn't possible. Police coming to claim body in forty minutes."

VISUAL CONFIRMATION IS REQUIRED FOR PAYMENT.

"Tell him number one on the list is dead. I killed him. And if the wire transfer isn't completed in forty minutes," Argent then took Stiles' spot in front of the laptop to type out one more message.

I'M COMING FOR YOU.

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

It had been a while of looking through the hallways of the hospital before something caught everyone's eye. After meeting Liam and Kira in an vacant room, Odessa and Stiles got the go ahead from Argent to open all of the laptops in front of them and monitor the halls. Argent put a device in one of the servers on the roof to connect the teen's laptops to every security camera the hospital had. If The Benefactor was about to roam the halls of Beacon Hills Memorial, they would see.

After about 20 minutes of standing around the laptops, the one in the middle started to glitch uncontrollably. Odessa watched one of the four squares on the screen start to become static, "I'm gonna guess and say this isn't supposed to look like that, right?"

Her question wasn't aimed toward anyone but it did catch their attention as they all watched the glitching screen go completely blank.

"No," Stiles muttered from beside her, furrowing his brow in confusion, "no, it's not."

"Where is that," Kira asked, taking a step further toward the screen.

"The roof. Someone's gonna have to check it out."

The Yukimura nodded with hesitation, turning around to grab her katana, "I'll go."

"Whoa, whoa," Stiles exclaimed, "this might not just be a malfunction."

"That's why I'm bringing this."

Odessa smirked as she watched Kira take out her sword, nodding, "bad ass."

As if making a last minute decision with himself, Liam bursted out, "I'm coming with you," to a retreating Kira before running to follow her.

Watching them leave the room, Stiles couldn't help but shout to them, "okay. And you're both coming right back. Immediately," seeing they were out of ear shot and already down the hallway, he sighed to himself, "kids."

Odessa scoffed a chuckle at his remark, not giving him a direct response, looking down at the other cameras that were working. The two teens gazed down at the screens in silence, too wrapped up in the plan to talk. Or it was the fact that neither of them knew what to say to the other. Many things were said in their time together in the vault only a day before. Stiles' confession about money problems and Odessa thinking Melissa's struggles were her fault. The way they embraced each other in the vault as a means of comforting each other. Odessa's joke about not having kissed Stiles yet. But it wasn't really a joke once the curtains pulled back to reveal the truthfulness of her statement.

What the hell were they doing? What were they waiting for? What was stopping them? A lot, actually. A lot was stopping them from finally getting together.

One example was where they were at the moment. Watching a clock countdown the minutes until their best friend could end up dead for good. Watching security cameras to see if they could catch someone trying to take Scott's body with no knowledge of what The Benefactor actually looked like.

Gradually, however, the screens all turned to static before going out completely, rendering them useless to the pair. Right after they lost the cameras, all the lights in the room shut off. From next to the Stone, Stiles sighed and ushered her and himself out of the room to try and find someone they knew and were in on the plan. And after a short amount of walking they did.

Coming from behind Argent, they didn't expect him to turn around and point his gun directly at them. Odessa instantly pushed Stiles behind her just in case, giving Argent a harsh stare. The man sighed, putting his arm back to his side.

When the gun was out of sight, Stiles spoke rapidly, anxiety in his tone, "the power's out in the whole building," he glanced down at Odessa, who moved to his side instead of in front of him, "we lost all the cameras."

"Stay with Scott," Argent kept his voice level to try and calm him, knowing the girl next to him would help calm him down as well, "text me if you see or hear anything," the man took out his watch to glance at the timer, reading 18 minutes and counting down.

Giving Argent nods, the two teens watched him run down the hallway in the opposite direction. Just as Odessa was about to do the same to go to the room Scott was being held in, she turned back to see Stiles still rooted in his spot, gazing down the hall where Argent had just left from.

"Hey," the Ember called, walking back to him. She grabbed his hand to get his attention when he didn't move in response to her calling his name, "let's go, okay? Come on."

Snapping out of his gaze, Stiles nodded slightly before squeezing her hand and taking the lead down the dark hallways, back to the room Scott was in.

They made it to where all the bodies were being kept, Scott included in one of the lockers, and waited a solid 10 minutes before Stiles couldn't take it anymore and started to call Argent excessively.

"Come on, come on," the boy muttered, pacing while hearing the constant tone in his ear, "answer the phone. Answer the phone, Argent."

"Stiles—"

"Come on, Argent, answer the phone. Why aren't you answering the phone?"

As soon as the question left his mouth, the double doors flew open with a bang. On instinct, Odessa pulled herself in front of Stiles again and firmly kept him behind her protectively, on guard for anything to happen.

The person who was thrown through the doors groaned and lifted their head toward them. Argent grunted from the floor, "guys, run! Get out of here."

The doors swung open again, letting a woman come through with no problem. From behind Odessa, Stiles inhaled sharply at the familiar woman in front of them, while Odessa looked on in confusion. She could only come to the conclusion that this was the woman everyone warned her about—Kate Argent.

"Get out of the way, kids," Kate demanded, her brother picking himself off the floor to stand beside the teens, "I'm taking the body."

Stiles moved closer to Scott's locker at the words, bringing Odessa with him, "why? Visual confirmation?"

Kate scoffed, taking a step closer to them, "don't worry, handsome. I'm not The Benefactor."

"Then what do you want with the body?"

"I wish I could tell you."

At his sister's answer, Argent lunged forward and held his gun on her chin, pushing her head up uncomfortably. He kept a tight hold of her arms so she couldn't retaliate.

Kate breathed in annoyance, knowing he outsmarted her, "I always forget you carry two."

Odessa and Stiles could only watch from behind the two siblings as they went back and forth.

"Back off!"

"You sure you can pull the trigger fast enough," Kate taunted her brother, gun still pressed against her chin.

"I don't want to."

"You're not going to kill me."

"I'm not going to let you take his body!"

Bringing his hands to Odessa's shoulders to guide her back in front of him, Stiles awkwardly spoke through the tension in the room, "okay, well, obviously you guys have a lot to talk about, so, maybe... I saw some coffee, a vending machine outside. Odie, you in on that?"

The blonde only turned her head to look at him incredulously, silently telling him he wasn't helping.

"Listen to me, Kate," Argent pleaded, his tone desperate to be heard, "we have a plan."

"If killing Scott was part of it, you're worse than me."

Odessa sighed, "he's telling the truth."

"We're trying to get to The Benefactor," the Stilinski finished, shifting his stance.

"If you didn't notice, you're in that list, too," Argent kept his gaze firmly on his sister, "and worth more than most."

"That's why I'm here."

"Then back off and let us do what we planned," with his hold loosening, it gave Kate an opening to lift her hand to Argent's wrist when something caught her attention. Lifting her gaze from the watch that showed 3 minutes and counting down, she looked to her brother in slight shock. Ignoring that, he pleaded once again, "take the Berserkers, and go. Kate, please. We have a plan."

After a few moments of defeating silence, Kate's response was only backing away from her brother's grip and leaving the room. When she was out of sight, the three left in the room all let out sighs of relief. They all glanced at each other, thinking the same thing.

It was time to wake up Scott.

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

Walking into her room, Odessa was surprised to see Malia waiting for her on her bed. With seconds left, Kira managed to wake Scott up no problem and was still at the hospital getting tests done since he technically did rise from the dead. Noshiko unfortunately was injured and was taken to another hospital that had actual working lights and power, her daughter by her side the entire ride to the hospital. Odessa left Stiles' Jeep that parked in her driveway with a kiss on his cheek as a thank you and a goodnight before making her way into the empty house. And that brought her to the present.

Blinking in surprise, Odessa let out a small, "hey," the only response she got was a short nod, "where have you been? I've been calling you..."

"Talking to Peter."

Though it was a short response, too short for Odessa's liking, the blonde still gave her friend her full attention. Keeping her distance in case Malia didn't want her near her, she opted to sitting on her desk chair, "okay. How did it go?"

Malia finally looked up from her hands, eyes locking with Odessa's brown ones, "why do you wanna know? You're the one who kept it from me in the first place," the Stone only gave her a small nod full of guilt in response, not knowing what to say, which only made Malia more angry, "and just so you know, I'm only talking to him to see if he can help me find my mother."

"Look, Mal," the Ember used the nickname cautiously, not wanting to upset her friend further, "I know we kept it from you but it's not for the reasons you think. Peter is a bad guy—"

"And you're worried I'm gonna end up like him—"

"No," Odessa interrupted firmly, saddened by how her friend could think that, "no, Malia, you might be related to him, but you're not like him. You're nothing like him."

Malia stood from her spot on the bed, prompting Odessa to do the same, "maybe I am," the Hale reached into her pocket and brought out a piece of paper and started to unfold it, "that night I caused the car crash..."

"You mean when you were out of control on the full Moon," Odessa corrected gently, watching the paper unfold into a familiar list.

"There's a part I didn't tell you about," Malia moved her eyes from the paper to Odessa, her eyes glossy, "right before we got in the car, my Mother... my adoptive Mother, I guess... we got into a huge fight. I don't even remember what it was about, but... I remember what I said."

"Mal—"

"I said I wish you were all dead."

With a firm shake of her head, Odessa walked toward her friend, "killing doesn't run in any family."

"Maybe it does in mine."

With that last declaration, Malia once again turned her back on Odessa, ready to walk out the door. But the blond wasn't having it.

"Malia," the sound of her name caused the Hale to stop in her tracks, but didn't turn around, "how do I fix this? I don't know what to do. Tell me what to do and I'll do it."

After a few moments, Malia turned around, paper still in hand, "you know, Odessa," the use of her full name almost made the blonde flinch, "I thought out of everyone, you'd be the one to jump and tell me as soon as you found out. I thought out of all people, you would understand what it's like to not know your parents. To not know the truth."

Odessa then felt something being put in her hand. She looked down to see the dead pool list with Malia Hale inscribed at the top. The blonde lifted her teary eyes to meet Malia's not knowing what to say. Ultimately, the Hale left with her last words hanging in the air.

"I don't know what you can do to fix this, Odessa."

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

YIKES THE ANGST
hope you guys enjoyed! sorry if it was a bit boring but drama is coming babes
comment && vote pls <3