the overlooked

Stiles and Cole sat in the front of the Jeep as they sped across town to Derek's loft, the storm growing stronger by the second as thunder rumbled over their heads, the wind shaking the car. Never had they seen a storm grow as fast as this one, nor had they ever seen someone fall so ill in so little time. In the back of the Jeep Noelle sat with a hand to her clammy head, trying to act as if she felt fine, maybe just a little car sick with all of the rocking side to side, she knew that it was something more than that, she wasn't Jared, she had a feeling it had something to do with Jennifer, how she had proudly admitted that she was drawing power from the blonde, it seemed that now she was taking more than ever, those moments of weakness she had felt before now, were nothing. This felt like the beginning of the end.

Though the boys had noticed how ill she looked they tried to hold back from mentioning how awful she looked, even worse than when she had escaped a vault after two years, which frankly, wasn't as bad as Cole had been expecting when Scott and Stiles had told him his little sister was alive. The way she looked now, that was what he had been expecting. Her skin was pale, and as cold as ice when he had reached over to take her phone from her hand when Scott had texted her with an update on his own separate mission before he met up with them at the loft. The two boys had taken it in turns peering over their shoulder to make sure the blonde behind them was still breathing, neither had to speak to know the same thought was running through their minds.

It had become so tempting to ask her what was going on with her, they were both convinced she knew, Nellie always seemed to know more than she let people think. They had no other choice than to resort in complete silence, biting their tongues in the hopes it would be the only thing that wouldn't offend her, all the words in their heads to describe how she looked right now was bound to. Eventually, they even had to stop looking at her in case she caught on, as far as they were aware she didn't know how ghastly she looked, only if she felt as ill as she looked. Frankly, anything that could hint to her that they were concerned for her health they stopped doing, they all knew she hated pity, and right now, it was all they felt.

"Okay," Nellie spoke up from the back of the Jeep, startling the two who had become so used to the silence, even her voice showed her withering condition. "What gives?"

"Huh? What?" The two boys mumbled in unison, acting oblivious.

"You've both got this look on your face that makes me want to punch you." Noelle deadpanned. For a second Stiles's mind was taken away from her withering condition and placed on Cora who had said almost the exact same thing to him a few days ago, but it made sense with all the time they had spent together, they were bound to rub off on one another, she could blend in with the Hale's at this rate, maybe a long lost sister, a cousin maybe. "So what gives?"

"Nothing, nothing." Stiles shook his head as the blonde stared into his soul through the rearview mirror waiting for him to crack, he kept trying to look away, desperate not to cave, but he did, he always did. "Fine. You look... ill." Stiles shrugged, trying to put it gently.

"You look dead." Cole corrected, not so gently. "Sorry." He mumbled afterward, to the both of them. Stiles for giving up on the end of the bargain they had practically made telepathically, and for his sister for not giving her a toned-down, brotherly-like version.

Noelle sighed as she sat up, leaning between the two front seats. "Well, I feel it too if that helps." She admitted though it hadn't eased either of their worries like she thought it might. "Don't you feel it?" The blonde asked her brother, assuming that if Jennifer was going to drain the power of one Elemental Druid, she was going to do it to the other too.

Cole furrowed his brows at the girl, turning in his seat. "Feel what?"

"Like the life is being drained out of you. Like your power is, I don't know, fading?" Noelle asked, but her brother's confusion made it clear that it wasn't both of them, Jennifer was using her and only her, she was strong enough for Jennifer to use alone.

The boy shook his head, even more so confused than when he had been before she tried to explain, he felt fine, but still, the boy looked down at his hands, watching as a small ball of fire grew in his pams, careful not to grow it too large, he knew he'd feel that sensation of the life being drained from him if he damaged Stiles's beloved Jeep. Everything looked and felt normal to him. Noelle tried to do the same, opening up her palm, trying to copy her brother's actions as she pictured that small ball of fire to appear in her hand, fire was her strongest element like it was his, it was her best bet, but her attempts were unsuccessful. A flame appeared for a split second before it fizzled out in a split second. Nellie shook off the failure, trying again with each of her elements, but every attempt became poorer, unlike her fire element, the other three had been so weak she was left with nothing until all hope was gone.

For the past few days, she had felt like she was getting stronger slowly but surely, that her other elements were slowly catching up to her fire element, and yet now. She'd never felt so weak. Even during her days in the vault, she'd felt more powerful than she did right now, even when Deucalion had put her under restraints.

"One minute I feel like I'm on top of the world. The strongest I've ever been. And the next I feel..." Nellie paused, trying to find the words as the two boys turned to look at her, waiting for her to explain. There was only one way to explain how she was feeling, her brother had hit the nail on the head. "I feel like I'm dying. Whatever Jennifer's doing to me, I think it's killing me."

Her words only incited more fear inside of them, encouraging Stiles to put his foot down on the gas hoping to get to Derek's loft quicker, before another person ended up in the hospital today, but he couldn't help but think that Cora and Noelle falling ill in a matter of hours couldn't be a coincidence. Jennifer was trying to take them down one by one, finishing what Kali had started.

"What if Derek isn't even here? Won't he be at the hospital with Cora?" Cole asked as the three of them climbed up the staircase of the loft, thanks to the growing storm outside they weren't able to take the elevator, which seemed to be the case every time Noelle came here lately.

"He's here," Nellie reassured her brother. "I called in a favor."

"With who?" Stiles asked, stopping on the staircase, it was an answer both of the boys were desperate to have, who the hell could she call in a favor with? Even if she was practically becoming more like a Hale by the day, surely she hadn't gotten in that close with the family.

"Let's just say I made a deal with the devil."

The three teenagers threw open the loft door, walking straight into the darkness of a loft only occasionally lit up by the strikes of lightning outside. Derek had stood tall at the sound of the three voices approaching his loft, he recognized Noelle's voice clearly by now, it had stopped his frantic packing of clothes for Cora while they waited for her to be transferred to a safer hospital across town now that their own was being evacuated due to the storm. A detail he assumed that Nellie didn't know, she hadn't answered any of his texts since she had left the hospital, and now that he was able to see her, he could see why. The blonde looked just as bad as Cora did, maybe even worse.

He furrowed a brow at the three of them, wondering why they were here and why they all looked so disheveled, he knew that the wind outside was strong, maybe some of the strongest winds he had ever felt, but there was something else about the four of them and how they looked. It wasn't just all of their messed up, windswept hairs, or Noelle's smudged mascara beneath her eyes, if he looked further, deeper, there was something wrong with the four of them. There was a sense of guilt, fear, and sadness amongst them.

Within a short half-hour of their arrival, the three managed to give Derek a recap of everything that had led to them standing in front of him now, Mr. Westover being sacrificed along with the music teacher at the recital, the few hours where it was thought that Argent could be the Darach, Sheiff Stilinski being taken and arguably the most important of all; his girlfriend actually being the Darach that had been sacrificing innocent people for months on end. As they took it in turns to explain it all the four teenagers weren't surprised that it might take a while for Derek to believe them, they sounded insane, but everything they said was true, it had all happened, and all in the space of them waking up this morning.

It was a matter of moments after the three had finished their very detailed explanation that Scott had strolled into the loft, he had a small jar in his hand, that was his way of giving Derek the proof that he clearly wanted before he could put his entire trust into the three teenagers. Part of him already believed them, they had no reason to lie and try to ruin his relationship, it wasn't possible for the four of them to make up such elaborate lies, even if they were imaginative, they weren't that good. The main thing that had convinced him, like the two boys had hoped it would, was Noelle. He knew he could trust her words, she had gained his sister's trust, something he felt as though even he hadn't quite regained yet, there was a sincerity in her eyes as she talked, telling him all about what she had been through the past 24 hours.

And how could he look at a girl who'd claimed that she was almost killed less than an hour ago by the Dark Druid and tell her that she was lying?

He'd heard Lydia's scream and now he saw the pained look in her eyes. She wasn't making it up.

It was as little as ten minutes after Scott had arrived, emphasizing all of the points that his best friends had already made that he and Derek's heads had turned towards the loft door, the visitor they had all been waiting for was here, just like the three of them had hoped for, and had been somewhat dreading. But they knew that with her presence came the opportunity to prove to the Alpha that they weren't lying to spite him and the relationship he had formed with the woman. Derek had quickly closed the loft door, shooing the four teenagers into the hallway that led to Cora's bedroom where they could wait and eavesdrop, only coming out when it was clear they needed to, until then, all they had to do was stay quiet and concealed.

"Derek?" Jennifer's voice echoed through the empty loft as she ran through it, panic in her voice that had turned to the soft one she typically used when talking to the Alpha, not the cunning and sharp one that Noelle had witnessed earlier when she'd been tied up by the woman. Jennifer's heels clicked against the cement floor of the loft as she stepped further into the loft, all four of the hidden teenagers had tensed up as the sound became louder, closer to them. If she stepped any further she would find them cowering in the hallway by the broken elevator as they held their breaths. "Derek, where are you?" Her voice shouted again, awfully loud in their ears.

Scott grabbed ahold of Noelle's hand as she stood cowering in front of him, her nerves reaching their peak as her head rested on her brother's back, waiting, hiding like werewolves were told to do, at least that was what they had gathered from Peter's story. Cole stood in front of the three younger teenagers, taking it upon himself to act as the muscle in the mission, he was the oldest, and in his mind, the wisest. At least he wasn't as irrational and insane as the three of them.

His touch had managed to bring her comfort, reassuring her that she was safe, it wasn't the first time it had worked, it wasn't the first time the three of them found themselves cowering in the dark. But as Scott gave the girl comfort he took something else from her, pain, he'd felt as black veins began stretching up his forearm, taking the pain that the girl so clearly felt, though it was clear she had been playing it off, acting as though it wasn't even there. Scott should have known better than to assume she couldn't be in any pain, whatever Jennifer was doing to her was going to end up killing her, of course, that would come with pain. She wouldn't have admitted it, she didn't like the pity, and now, she didn't have to, he had felt it for himself.

Noelle tried to act as though she hadn't felt the relief of pain rush through her, refusing to turn and look at the wolf, she knew he would give her a silent lecture for not telling him how much pain she was in, mouthing an argument at each other as they waited for the opportunity to show their faces to the woman causing it.

"Right here." Derek's voice replied to the woman from across the loft, pulling her towards him and away from the three hiding teenagers who had become slightly less tense.

"Thank God." Jennifer sighed as she rushed towards the Alpha, wrapping her arms around him as thunder rumbled through the unlit loft. She pulled away from him. "Something happened at the recital. At the school. Okay, I need to tell you before you hear it, before you hear any of it from them," She rambled frantically. Already, Derek was beginning to believe the words of the blonde more and more, how desperate Jennifer was to make sure she was listening to him, and believing her only proved that something like what they said had happened tonight.

"From who?" Derek played along with the facade, raising his brow.

"Scott, Stiles. She said breathlessly. She hadn't added the blonde girl she wanted to kill onto the list, she assumed she would be laying weakly in a hospital somewhere under the care of the rest of the Hale family, it hadn't gone unnoticed that she had ties with Cora Hale. Watching the entire pack was something she hadn't quite managed to figure out. The last thing she'd expect was for the girl to be walking around with Scott, Stiles, and Cole as if everything was fine. "They're gonna tell you things. Things you can't believe. You have to trust me, okay? You trust me."

Ironic how those had been the very words that Noelle had said to him. Between the woman in front of him who he'd felt himself growing feelings towards for the past two months, and the girl he'd helped save from a vault the same night, he already knew between the two who those words meant more coming from. Even by the tone of their voices as they asked him to trust them he knew who meant it because they were telling the truth and they desperately wanted him to see that compared to wanting to manipulate him like so many others had before.

"What is it?" He asked.

Jennifer pressed her lips against his as the lightning illuminated the apartment once again, leaving a shadow of their close silhouettes on the ground for the four hiding teenagers to see, Stiles turned to look at the two behind him, Noelle raising her head off his back to look, all of their confidences had been knocked by that sight, believing that with so little words Jennifer had managed to sway him to her own side, prying on his weaknesses. Jennifer pulled away from the wolf with open eyes, narrowing them at him. Something about him was different, even the way that he kissed her was different, and with that, she knew.

"They're already here, aren't they?" She asked with haste to her tone, the innocent voice she had entered with quickly fading, revealing the serpent beneath. Derek looked straight behind the woman as Scott, Stiles, and Cole came out of their hiding place while Noelle remained there, Jennifer's act wouldn't end here, they all knew that and if Noelle wasn't in sight, they hoped it would play to their advantage. She could lie as much as she wanted, but when she saw that the girl she had firsthand tried to kill was right in front of her, how good of a liar could she really be to go against cold hard evidence? "So, they told you it was me? That I'm the one taking people?" Her voice lightened again as she looked at the Alpha with puppy dog eyes as if it was absurd to accuse her of such a crime.

"We told him you're the one killing people." Scott corrected.

"Oh, that's right." Jennifer chuckled. "Committing human sacrifices? What, cutting their throats? Yeah, I probably do it on my lunch hour. That way, I can get back to teaching high school English the rest of the day. That makes perfect sense." She continued to mock, but nobody was laughing at her teasing, in fact, Stiles was on the edge of tears as he looked at the woman.

"Where's my dad?" He asked, a single tear rolling down his cheek.

"How should I know?" The woman asked, refusing to give in to it all, she was determined to carry on her act that she felt as though she had mastered after all of these months, with a little more persistence she knew she could get Derek on her side. Between her and three teenagers who had a less than perfect reputation, it was a piece of cake. Jennifer turned back to face the Alpha who stood behind her with a straight face. "Derek, tell me you don't believe this."

He looked at the two teenage boys, Scott with a face of thunder and Stiles with teary eyes, a face that pleaded for him to do the right thing, a face he typically saw on the likes of the blonde who always seemed to be an advocate for what was right in the world after she had been wronged by it. Everyone had wanted him to do the right thing at least once, all of them had given him that look, trying to bring out the good part of him, not the big bad Alpha werewolf that he liked to appear as, it was as if she saw straight through his facade as if she was familiar with the act of pretending to be something your not.

Derek looked back at the woman. "Do you know what happened to Stiles's father?"

"No." Jennifer shook her head.

"Ask her why she almost killed Nellie and Lydia." Cole insisted Noelle's ears perked up at the mention of her name, she knew that any moment now, when Jennifer refused to admit that she had tried anything against her, she would step out with the dramatic effect that all Hale's liked to have, the family was rubbing off on her more than she knew.

"Lydia Martin? I don't know anything about that." Jennifer reiterated with complete shock, she deserved an Oscar for her acting, it was impeccable. If she wasn't a psychopath Kinsey would have considered watching her in a movie. "And Noelle? Noelle Priestley?" She asked as she looked at Derek, talking directly to him. "Why would I try and kill her? Hasn't that poor girl been through enough?" She asked, acting as though she cared for her welfare.

"I'd say so. But that didn't seem to stop you from almost slitting my throat an hour ago." Noelle spoke as she stepped out, walking until she was beside her brother and Scott, her eyes piercing daggers into the fellow Druid who looked at her with a slightly slacked jaw, just the reaction that Noelle had been hoping to receive from the woman. Her perfect plan to make liars out of the three boys foiled right before her very eyes as Noelle stood with folded arms and a slightly tilted head, waiting for the woman to dig herself out of the very large hole she had made for herself.

Jennifer still tried to keep the facade rolling as she tried to convince Derek that the four teens against her were simply trying to fill his head with absurdity for some misguided reasons that she couldn't explain, one that they couldn't prove, so she thought. She'd been confident in her words as she looked at the three teenagers, as if Noelle standing there wasn't enough proof, she would happily show Derek what Jennifer had done to her, he could gladly dig his claws into the back of her neck and see it all from her own eyes if he wanted that much proof. But that wasn't necessary, because they could prove it, thanks to a quick visit to Deaton. Scott held up his proof in a small jar, a light-colored powder that immediately wiped the smirk off of Jennifer's face, clear worry in her voice as she asked them what it was, though she had a feeling she already knew. As Deaton had told Scott, and as he told those around him, unscrewing the lid as he spoke, it acted as both a cure and poison, which means it can be used, and it could also be used against her. She knew exactly what it was as her lip curled and she muttered the word. Mistletoe.

Scott threw the powdered mistletoe at the woman as it wrapped around her, a sharp gasp from the woman as he glamoured appearance faded and her true self was revealed for a second, her face scarred beyond recognition, her eyes a glowing white a loud roar escaping her mouth as she looked through the powder at the three teenagers, startling all three of them. Even Derek was stunned by the appearance as he looked at her with wide eyes.

Her facade was over. She was known now. Jennifer tried to make a run for it before Derek had grabbed her by the throat, raising her from the floor as she begged for her life, his claws were already extended, prepared to end it for good, he didn't care for her pleading.

"You need me." Jennifer pleaded through her vocal cords that were slowly being crushed.

"What are you?" He snarled at her, tightening his grip.

"The only person who can save your sister." Jennifer insisted. "Call Peter. Call him!"

Derek looked straight at Noelle who had already dug her phone from her pocket to call the devil she had already made a deal with tonight, her eyes filled with worry while Derek's had become overwhelmed with anger. Peter had immediately picked up after seeing the girl's name on his phone again, he'd only been waiting for an update after she had nagged him to find a way to get his nephew back to the loft, he had been eager to know why.

Of course, Noelle had told him to save his scheming questions for later as she questioned how Cora was, her only reason to talk to the man was for the sake of her best friend. Peter admitted that it wasn't good, that his niece was in and out of consciousness, vomiting up a black liquid as well as an alarming substance that he didn't think the blonde would recognize until she had already said it for him, mistletoe.

"How did you know that?" Peter asked the girl with concern.

Noelle didn't answer the man as she hung up the phone, she looked at Derek who had grown angrier after listening to the call, his hand was so tight around Jennifer's neck he could feel every inch of oxygen that passed through her windpipes. He tightened them until he could not only feel that air escape her, but he could hear her gasping for breath, it was what she deserved for what she had done, especially when it came to messing with his family. Because if he were honest, Noelle was like family now, her relationship with Cora had determined that she was the closest that the two of them had to a sister now Laura was gone, frankly, she shared that same personality that his sister had.

Despite how much Noelle and the three boys wanted to see Jennifer dead, getting what she deserved there were things that they couldn't do without her, she knew that. As she told them, Cora's life was in her hands and so was the Sheriff's. If they didn't have her they would never find him, that she could promise. Derek continued to raise Jennifer in the air as he ignored the pleas from Scott and Stiles, plead after pleading the woman became further off of the floor until finally, Noelle pleaded, and then, only then did he slam the Darach to the ground leaving her clutching her throat.

Yet she remained unphased as she looked at them with a smile, knowing that for as long as Cora remained ill and the Sheriff remained missing, they needed her. She was untouchable.

Rain poured down heavy on the windscreen of the Jeep as they tailgated Derek's Camaro, since leaving the loft the Jeep had been quite quiet as all four of them thought about their main concerns about everything that was happening tonight. Of course, Stiles was worried for his dad as he questioned whether they could trust Derek not to kill her, if he did, he'd lose any chance of seeing his father again. He couldn't let the last thing he said to his father be those words, that his mother would have believed him, when he finally got to say his last words to his father the two of them would be old, have lived a long and full life, and it would be right, perfectly thought out and heartfelt. Not something he spat out in a moment of anger at the ripe age of seventeen.

Scott sat in the back of the Jeep beside Nellie, though he didn't have a father to worry about, he was worried that Derek might change his mindset too, that even after seeing Jennifer in her other form he would forgive her, or maybe, he would just kill her and their chances of fixing everything. But above all, he was worried that the next time Jennifer tried to suck some power out of the blonde beside him, it would be too much for her to take. Since Jennifer had taken the sheriff, she had begun to improve slowly, showing that the woman had severed that connection for a moment, until she needed power again. Nobody knew when that would be, or how much she would need either. A thought that her brother had too shared as he consistently peered over his shoulder to check on his sister, even while she remained in the careful hands of Scott.

Noelle on the other hand paid no thought to Jennifer Blake, her main concern was her best friend, Cora, and whether she would make it through the night, or at least until they managed to find a way to save her. Since leaving the school her phone hadn't stopped vibrating in her jacket pocket, the same two people on the screen, Isaac and Allison who were desperate for an update. They wanted to know what the four of them had planned, they needed to know how they were going to put a stop to Jennifer Blake.

"Something still feels wrong about this," Stiles muttered under his breath, barely audible over the storm that shook them from side to side as they sped down the streets of the town.

"Yeah, the bitch is still breathing." Cole deadpanned, all three of the younger teenagers looking at him with surprise. He knew they needed her to be alive, but that didn't mean he still couldn't hate the woman for what time that she had left alive, which she hoped wasn't much longer. "What? She tried to kill Nell."

Stiles shook his head, digressing back to the point he was going to make. "You know, we proved it to Derek but she still had this look like it didn't matter. You know, like it was all still going according to plan. You saw it, didn't you?" He asked, looking between the three of them. While Scott and Cole didn't know how to tell him that they didn't see it, Noelle nodded in agreement. But neither of the supernatural boys were surprised that the two of them were on the same page, they always had been, since the four of them had been kids.

They all pulled up outside of the hospital that was still working its way through the evaluation process, both of the cars were dumped by the illuminated hospital sign at the front of the building as the five of them jumped out into the rain that had immediately soddened them with its heavy downfall. Derek had immediately latched his arm around Jennifer, refusing to let her out of his sight, Cole had rushed ahead of the other three to act as a second pair of eyes were on the woman, they needed all the security around her that they could get. That was why Stiles had pulled out his weapon- a wooden bat, holding it high with pride in the air as they all walked through the rain. Scott and Noelle turned around to make sure that he was keeping up, his eyes widening at the sight of the bat, questioning what he intended on doing with it. Stiles's response was simple, Scott had claws, Nellie had the elements, he had a bat.

Dripping with rainwater the four of them stormed through the hospital, Jennifer was more so dragged through it by Derek who refused to even look at her as she kept her head down, still wearing a concealed smirk. All six of them were pulled to a stop at the sound of Melissa's voice shouting for her son as she rushed towards them, alerting them that the hospital was evacuating which was something they were already aware of, and something they didn't particularly care about. They had to get Cora out of the building, healed and safe, which could only be done with the unfortunate presence of the Dark Druid. Melissa had looked between the group that stood behind her son, Stiles with his bat, her bat, to be precise, Noelle who was dripping wet from the rain, and in a dress, which worried every maternal instinct inside of her, the poor girl would catch a cold if she stayed in the wet clothes, but by the urgency in their walks and the anger on the face of Derek Hale, she assumed the girl didn't have time for a costume change. Scott did what all teenagers did to their parents, at least from his experience, completely ignore all of the important questions they were asking and completely changed the subject. He'd done so by telling the woman to get out of the hospital and as quick as possible, much like they would be doing when they had Cora in their possession.

Melissa knew she couldn't stop them, instead, she had to help them. "The building is supposed to be clear in 30 minutes. We've got two ambulances that are coming back. One's 10 minutes out, the other's 20. Cora needs to be on one of those." Melissa insisted, as she spoke she had been looking at her son, until she turned to Noelle, out of all six of them, she looked the sanest. Which was surprising. "They'll be picking up in the basement garage. Got it?" She asked the girl who nodded before all of them resumed their mission, charging towards the elevator.

It was an awkward ride to the second floor. Derek and Jennifer stood in the middle of the small space, his hand around Jennifer's arm still, a leash, as she had referred to it as. But everyone had ignored her remark. She looked to her left side where the soddened Scott and Cole squared their eyes at her, growling lowly as he stood with folded arms, she turned to her right, where Stiles stood with the bat still raised high, gripping onto it with every fiber of his being, his expression much, much less threatening than the one Scott was wearing. Or even Noelle whose eyes stared into her soul, frankly, Noelle was the only one in this entire elevator capable of inciting some fear into her, and that was only because she knew the kind of power that the girl possessed, not only had she taken some of it, but she was aware of how strong it was, and just how much power was left inside of her to take. More than even she knew.

They marched through the halls of the second floor with Derek taking the lead, but he had quickly stopped at the sight of an empty bed. Neither his sister nor his uncle was anywhere to be seen. All that was left in the room was the black liquid and mistletoe that Peter had told them about. Noelle stood beside the Alpha, looking at the floor, noticing a trail of the black liquid, she nudged his side as she mumbled his name softly, pointing at the trail that had been made. The liquid had been trickled through the hallway, stopping at a set of closed double doors. All six shared the same wide-eyed look as they heard a muffled grunting coming from the other side as the lights flickered around them. All of them stood, watching and waiting before the doors had swung open, and with it, a body slid across the ground until it had reached their feet.

Peter looked up at the blonde and Derek, their confused expressions. "We got a problem." At the end of the hall, he had been tossed from stood the Voltron wolf. "Big problem." He corrected.

The two merged Alphas released a loud road, flickering the lights around them again. Stiles had his bat raised, holding onto it tighter than ever before. Noelle had helped the wolf off of the floor before both Peter and Derek stood before her, their arms slightly extended to shield her as if they saw her as someone they needed to protect. Even Peter, Satan in a v-neck saw it necessary to protect the girl, willing to protect her. But that protection could only last so long, they couldn't stand and shield her while the Voltron wolf tried to fight. Eventually, they realized that. Derek along with Scott had transitioned until their different pairs of colored eyes were glowing, their sharp claws were out and their canines were out, ready to tear some skin.

Derek was the first to charge for the Voltron wolf, attempting to tackle them by the waist, at first he'd had the upper hand, but as soon as he lost it Scott was the next to charge towards the fight. As the three wolves moved around Noelle caught a glimpse of a body laying on the floor behind them, answering her question of where Cora was if not in her exam room.

"Help me," Noelle asked, or more so insisted as she turned to Stiles and her brother.

They had no objections to helping her rescue Cora, even if it meant rushing through a fight between three wolves. As soon as Peter had seen the three rushing towards the fight he followed them to protect his niece. A gap had been made for the three of them as the Voltron wolf slammed Scott against the wall, gripping him by the throat. Leaving nobody standing guarding Jennifer. Noelle pressed her ear against Cora's chest as she kneeled over her.

Thankfully, the girl was still breathing, but it was shallow. Peter threw his niece over his shoulder while the three teenagers watched the fight which had dispersed for the moment as the Voltron wolf rushed towards the closing elevator that contained Jennifer. Derek turned around with his glowing Alpha eyes, insisting that all of them run, nobody hesitated for even a second as they all ran through the halls for somewhere to hide. Peter and Noelle took the lead, desperate to get Cora to a safe place, Stiles and Cole following closely behind them while the other two wolves kept at the back of the group, constantly looking back to look out for Ethan and Aiden who they could still hear growling in the near distance. As he stopped he insisted that they all kept moving with Cora, as they did, he and Scott rushed to follow them until Stiles had stopped, looking down at his bat. He wanted to do something, prove that he wasn't useless as a human. Even if he didn't have the claws or the dagger, he had a bat, that had to be something.

Stiles stood back, concealed slightly as the double doors they'd just run through had swung open again, this time the Voltron wolf had run through it, stopping at the sight of Derek and Scott on the other side of the room, stood in the doorway ready to continue running. In that moment where the twins had stopped Stiles swung his bat around their head, smashing it to pieces until it was nothing but an overgrown splinter, of course, that only angered the twins more than they already were. Which was a lot. Stiles quickly stumbled back, scaling the wall until he was behind the protection of the two werewolves.

The two wolves were stood prepared to fight, as the lights flickered again Scott looked up with a plan, he jumped up, Derek giving him a boost as he reached for the light, pulling it down off of the ceiling until it hit the Voltron wolf, knocking the twins to the ground and buying them some time to run and find cover to help Cora.

Peter and the three teenagers barged into one of the empty surgical rooms, as Peter lay his unconscious niece on the table the two wolves rushed into the room, shutting the doors behind them, they didn't know where Ethan and Aiden had gone since hitting them with a light, but they knew that the two of them were close, they could only hide out here for so long.

"What about Ms. Blake?" Stiles asked, looking between Derek and Scott, who shook his head. "What do you mean? What does that mean? Like, she's gone?" Stiles began to panic, losing her meant losing his dad, he felt as though he was the only one understanding that urgency. "Scott, are you kidding me?" The boy's voice began growing louder and louder.

"Shh, quiet." Derek snapped at him in a whisper.

"Me be quiet? Me, huh? Are you telling me what to do now?" Stiles began to argue, this time he had lowered his voice as he stepped closer to the wolf, snarling his words. "When your psychotic mass-murdering girlfriend, the second one you've dated, by the way, has got my dad tied up somewhere waiting to be ritually sacrificed?"

Scott and Cole tried to calm the boy down, but he was too far gone, even when reminding him that the twins were still roaming the halls looking for them Stiles didn't care. He was practically already a dead man walking after hitting them over the head with a bat, and then Scott hitting them with a light fixture, so it didn't matter if he raised his voice, especially if it to get his point across. The Alphas wanted Jennifer, and now they didn't have her either, they'd lost her and in turn any and all chance of saving either his father or Cora.

Though the wolf didn't want to see it, there was an ugly truth to Stiles's words.

He insisted that neither of them was dead yet, and if he could help it, they never would be, the wolf seemed confident in those words, but even he had to admit that there was a chance that he was wrong, that losing Cora and the Sheriff were very much possibilities. He walked over to the two who hadn't left the dying wolf's side, they'd spent the entire time listening to her heartbeat hoping it didn't fade into the nothingness. They hadn't even turned to watch the exchange between a brave Stiles and Derek as the boy stood up to him as if it had ever worked out for him in all the previous attempts he had made.

Scott swallowed the lump in his throat as he asked whether the girl was really dying, but neither Noelle nor Peter could quite bring themselves to agree with him, unable to spit out even a simple "yes." instead, they opted for agreeing that she wasn't getting any better. As Nellie looked at the wolf he noticed that desperate look in her eyes, a silent plea for help before she lost anyone else in her life, another death in her life may just push her past the breaking point. The wolf tried to be hopeful, though he didn't know how, he insisted that there had to be some way to help her, even just ease her condition.

The double doors opened, all five of the conscious people turning to look as Jennifer stood under the flickering hospital lights, with quite some nerve. "You can't. Only I can." She insisted, clearly, she had heard Scott's suggestion of helping Cora. "I can save her, and I can tell you where Sheriff Stilinski is. But there is a pack of Alpha's in this hospital who want me dead. So I'll help you, but only when I'm out of here and safe. Only then."

There was a brief pause as Jennifer looked across six infuriated faces, waiting for one of them to take her up on her offer. Considering a third of the people looking at her were Hales and another one of them was a best friend to the dying girl on the surgical table she assumed it was an easy decision for them to all make. It was clear that the two Hale's who looked at her were the most infuriated, they wore the same expression, a curled up lip, narrowed eyes, both of them looking as though they were going to pounce at her. Eventually, one of them did. Derek flipped a table as he charged towards the Darach, prepared to rip her throat out whether it meant they lost their chance of saving Cora and the Sheriff, he'd been waiting all night to get his hands on her again. Though he was willing to make that sacrifice, Scott wasn't as he held the Alpha back.

"She was trying to get out." Derek spat out, pointing an accusing finger at the woman.

"I was trying to keep from getting killed. You can't blame me for that." She corrected him.

Stiles suggested that if she wanted to prove herself that she should heal the dying girl, but it was an offer that Jennifer wasn't willing to take, repeating again that she wouldn't be helping Cora until she was out of the building, away from the Alphas and safe. Some of the group had other ideas of how to deal with the situation.

"I'd like to volunteer a different method of persuasion," Peter spoke up. "Let's torture her."

"Works for me." Noelle and Derek agreed, the blonde and Derek tried to shove their way past the arm that Scott had extended in front of them before they managed to slip past and claim their revenge on Jennifer. They both had plenty of reasons too.

The two stopped their fighting against the restraint of Scott's arm when the P.A system squeaked in their ears, the entire room pausing as they looked at the speaker in the room, as far as they had been concerned, only themselves, Cora, and maybe a few stray doctors should be left in the hospital to make sure that she got into the ambulance. Melissa had specifically stated that everyone else was meant to be evacuated, so they all wondered who was about to make an announcement. And none of them was comforted by the answer. Melissa's voice was the one to sound through the speaker. Mr. Deucalion. Excuse me, just Deucalion, requests you bring the woman calling herself Jennifer Blake to the E.R reception. As Melissa spoke loudly in their ears Jennifer could see her chance of escaping fading, if it was a choice between getting Melissa away from Deucalion, or getting her away, it was clear what the decision was going to be. Do this, and everyone else can leave. You have 10 minutes. Noelle looked at the wolf who stood beside her, now he had that same desperate and disheartened look that he had seen on her, now his own mother was in danger he began understanding just how bad Stiles felt and just how far he was willing to go to make sure that they were safe. Frankly, he was quite ashamed it had taken his own mother being in the grasps of Deucalion for him to realize. Jennifer took a deep breath as she looked at the young wolf, insisting that Deucalion wouldn't hurt Melissa.

"Shut up." Derek snapped at the woman again.

"He won't!" Jennifer raised her voice. "Scott, you know why. Tell them it's true."

"What does she mean?" Cole asked as he looked at the wolf with a worried look, questioning what he had been hiding from them all, it was only Noelle who suspected that she knew what Jennifer was referring to, he had told her what Deaton had said about his potential.

Scott looked around the room, at all the faces waiting for an answer from him but he couldn't manage to spit it out, whether it was because of what it actually was, or maybe because he had become overwhelmed after hearing that Deucalion had his mother. He couldn't be sure that he wouldn't hurt his mother, even with what he knew, it wasn't as though the Alpha pack could be trusted. They were just as bad as Jennifer. They were all cut from the same cloth. Jennifer too waited for Scott to say what he knew until she realized that it wasn't going to happen and that she would have to tell them all herself. Someone had to spit it out, it was about time.

"You're not the only one he wants in his pack." Jennifer deadpanned as she looked at Derek, he was already beginning to sense where it was going as he looked at the beta who stood beside him. "Deucalion doesn't just want an Alpha pack. He wants perfection. That means adding the rarest of Alphas to his ranks."

"A true Alpha," Peter mumbled from behind them.

"What's that?" Stiles questioned.

"The kind that doesn't have to steal his power from another. One that can rise by the force of his own will. Our little Scott." Peter explained with a smirk across his face while Scott's expression couldn't have been more guilty, particularly because of the look that two of his best friends gave him, both somewhat hurt that he had hidden it from them. But they had noticed Noelle didn't seem so surprised. But this was the exact reason why they had, telling the two of them came with putting them in danger, which was also why Scott hadn't told the blonde everything that he had been told. Deaton had told him a lot more than that he would soon be a true Alpha, and that was why Deucalion wanted, if anything, that was the easiest thing that Deaton had said.

"But it's not just you, is it, Scott?" Jennifer asked with the corner of her mouth turned into a slight smirk. For a moment he thought that she would let him keep the rest of the secret quiet, it wasn't necessary for them to find out now, it didn't have to happen. They could make it through at least one more night without the rest of it coming out, at least they could have, but Jennifer was determined to make sure that he was down to the bone, that all of his weaknesses were entirely exposed until he had no other choice but to help her, and in turn, help all of them.

All of them turned to look at the wolf again, even more, confused than before as his face turned even guiltier, his head bowed. "You didn't think that Deucalion would just let you go, did you? That you would escape the vault and that would be it?" She asked as she looked straight at the blonde girl. "He won't leave until he has the most powerful pack of all. The rarest of the rare. He had you before, what makes you think he won't take you again? Even Deucalion knows that the two of you come as a package deal."

"Scott?" Noelle muttered, the way that he had barely been able to look at her as he kept his head bowed had told her all she needed to.

Jennifer wasn't lying. Deucalion's intention was always to get the evolved elemental druid back in his grasp, he wanted the rare talents she had, and he knew exactly how to get to her, this time, it wasn't through force, but through Scott. He knew that where Scott would go, she'd follow. And he knew that Scott would go with him if it meant protecting his loved ones. Scott finally looked up, but not to confront the girl who stood beside him with a stronger feeling of dread than ever. Instead, it was time for a game plan. His mom had told them that there was an ambulance for Cora in 20 minutes, he was sure that they hadn't been here that long, all they had to do was get down to the garage and get out of there. As Peter stated, the twins weren't going to let them just walk out, but Scott had it covered, he would act as a distraction, which, in Derek's words, meant fight them. After he'd put all of them in danger by keeping things a secret Scott didn't care what he would have to do as long as it worked, and he wasn't in it alone.

Derek had volunteered his assistance, though Jennifer had different plans for him. She refused to go anywhere without him, leaving Peter to volunteer his help instead, something he never would've imagined himself doing. There was nothing that would stop him from getting the revenge that he wanted and, in his opinion, deserved. Everyone had looked at him with surprise, none of them were expecting him to offer his strength, frankly, they thought it would be Noelle and Stiles going out there with Scott, the chaotic trio making tonight even worse than it already was. Though the group was a little less surprised when Peter insisted that he wanted to go out there with an advantage, nobody, not even the wolf himself quite knew what kind of advantage he meant. But they were in a hospital filled with drugs and machinery, something in this room had to give him some kind of boost against the Voltron wolf. As long as it was better than a baseball bat the man didn't care what his advantage was.

Frantically, everyone began searching through the cabinets of the surgical room, reading every label of every drug that it had to offer, most of them were unpronounceable, things that they were sure even Lydia Martin wouldn't have even heard of. Peter may have been brave to accept putting drugs in himself to give him a boost, but he at least wanted to know what the drug was.

"Hey, what about these?" Stiles asked as he held up the defibrillator.

"Do you know how to use those?" Derek asked, pausing his search.

"Well, no..." Stiles admitted in a mumble.

"Put 'em down."

Stiles nodded, quickly putting the deliberator back in its place as though he had been told off by his dad, rushing towards another corner of the room to search there for something of use, it was a lot harder when they didn't really know what they were looking for. And so far, most of what they had found was needles or tools to assist in surgery, not as many drugs as they were hoping to find when they had begun their search.

Noelle opened one of the drawers, her eyes lighting up at the sight of an unusually large syringe, it was the kind of thing that would normally make her feel sick, but she knew that it was the kind of syringe that had to have some heavy drugs in, especially in a surgical room. Cole peered over her shoulder as she spun the syringe round to find the label, his head tilting as he tried to read the label, mouthing the word that didn't even look like it was real.

"Epinephrine." Cole stammered, looking at the brunette to see if he had read it right, which she nodded to. Out of all the big words that Lydia had taught her, that was one she knew. After confessing to Lydia that she was interested in pursuing a medical career the redhead hadn't hesitated to begin teaching her all of the complicated words, epinephrine being one of them. Everyone had looked over at the two Priestleys at the sound of the large word, like Cole, they didn't know what it was, but it sounded like the kind of thing they were looking for.

"That's only gonna make him stronger." Noelle shrugged, prepared to put it back.

"How strong?" Peter asked, a brow raised at the blonde.

Before she knew it Derek and Scott were holding him down as she stabbed the needle into his chest, his eyes glowing their bright blue as he roared loudly watching as she injected every last ounce of the epinephrine into his system. It gave him an immediate boost, he could already feel it rushing through his veins as the two wolves loosened their grip on him. Peter looked at the double doors that led out to the hallway, knowing it was now or never he stormed toward them, he hadn't even allowed Noelle the time to pull the syringe back out of his chest. Scott followed the man out into the hall, the two of them gearing themselves up as they came face to face with Ethan and Aiden who stood down the other side of the hall, separated. Their timing had been nothing but impeccable. The double doors opened again behind the two wolves, daring to turn their heads for a split second they saw Noelle, prepared to support them in their fight.

"What are you doing?"

"Winning." Noelle deadpanned.

With a proud smile, Scott turned to look at the two Alphas who opposed them as his and Peter's eyes turned their glowing colors, Noelle taking a deep breath as she prepared herself for the worst. Ethan and Aiden merged before charging towards the three who in turn, charged at them. As the five of them thought Stiles led Cole, Jennifer, and Derek, who had Cora thrown over his shoulder out of the surgical room, nervously watching Noelle for a moment as she tried to take on the Voltron wolf, her hands burning their bare chests. She had no sense of danger, which for someone who was constantly in it, was quite surprising. Derek nudged a frozen Stiles, signaling for him to follow them as they rushed through the halls again, leaving behind the three who'd practically sacrificed themselves without looking back.

All three of them had been thrown around their fair share, even with Peter being drugged up on epinephrine they were no match for two merged Alpha werewolves, they had been thrown up walls or onto the floor. When they had their chance Peter grabbed a hold of the blonde, pulling her as they scrambled away down the hall with Scott guiding them. Ethan and Aiden remained hot on their tails as they chased them through the west wing of the second floor, eventually, with a sharp turn, they managed to lose the twins for a moment, but in the process, Peter had dropped down to the floor with a line of sweat across his forehead while he panted like a dog. His legs couldn't carry him anymore, he had come crashing down, hard.

"That shot didn't last very long." He mumbled in a daze, sitting up against the wall.

"Well, man up because we can't stop." Noelle snapped at the man as she threw one of his arms over her shoulder, Scott taking the other one. It was clear that Scott would be carrying most of the weight, but the part that she carried made it a little easier for him to rush through the halls.

Eventually, they had no other choice but to find sanctuary in the first place they come across, it just so happened to be the soiled laundry room. But none of them had the energy to complain. Peter had collapsed against the table in the middle of the room while Noelle had her back pressed against the wall, trying to catch her breath as Scott kept watch, waiting for the twins to find them again. It was only a matter of time before they would have to go back out and fight, this time they wouldn't have epinephrine to boost them, they would be tired, weak, beatable.

"Those twins are really starting to piss me off," Peter complained breathlessly. Scott nodded in agreement, trying to remain silent as he peeked out of the small glass window in the door, his eyes remaining on the hall that flashed in and out of darkness, it was a miracle the electricity had been able to hold on for this long, they'd expected to be in complete darkness already. Peter turned to the unusually quiet blonde as she leaned against the door, he watched as she raised her hand from her stomach, wincing with every little movement. Once she'd moved her hand he could see a large slash in her dress, her hand and the rest of her dress covered in her own scarlet red blood, she'd managed to keep that wound quiet. "That doesn't look good." He commented it had come out much more sarcastic than he intended, he was trying to show his concern.

Scott looked at the blonde, he stared at the blood on her hand, wondering when it had happened as she rested her head on the door taking another deep breath, wincing once again.

"It's fine." The girl insisted, wincing again. "It doesn't even hurt." For once, she was the Priestley who was a terrible liar rather than her big brother.

"Tell your face that," Peter remarked, the blonde narrowed her eyes at him as she placed her hand back on the wound, applying pressure.

Scott held out his hand, watching as the blonde looked down at it with a furrowed brow, not able to understand it at first until he sighed, taking his eye off of the hallway for a moment to take her pain again like he had less than an hour ago. Noelle didn't want him to, she knew it hurt him, and if it hurt him as it did her, she couldn't do that to him, but she hadn't had a choice in the matter either. He took the hand that wasn't pressed against her wound, cupping it in his own as she watched the black veins stretch up his forearm and he had begun grunting lowly in pain while it relieved her own. Her lie about the wound not hurting had already been poor, but now Scott knew just how much it had hurt her, even more than Jennifer had hurt her.

Peter watched the exchange with a curled lip, disgusted by young teen love, it was like watching Derek and Paige all over again, a remake of the same star-crossed lover's fairy tale. But beyond his disgust, he could see just how urgent it was that the three of them get out of here, and soon. Peter was on his last legs and the blonde was bleeding, again. Neither of them would make it through another round with the Alpha twins, he wasn't sure that even he would be able to.

"How the hell are we gonna get past them?"

"Personally, I think that if we keep letting them beat the living crap out of us they'll tire and give up," Peter suggested, much to the dismay of both the teenagers who'd had more than enough of having the crap beaten out of them. There was no more crap to beat.

Scott turned to look at the man with a disapproving look like the blonde already was, but as the flickering lights illuminated the room he was given a glimpse of the perfect escape route, it would get them out of this room without the twins seeing them, it couldn't have been better. Noelle and Peter followed Scott's stare until they were looking at the laundry chute behind them which although it wasn't an ideal route, it was the best thing they had, and possibly the best thing that Scott had ever come up with. Peter was the least pleased with the idea, but he didn't have room to complain if he wanted to stay out of another fight, one that could very much kill him. Noelle and Scott opted for Peter to be the first to throw himself down the laundry chute, they wanted to know it definitely worked before they dared to put themselves through it. Within seconds of Peter climbing into the chute, Scott had followed him, a disaster waiting to happen. Noelle stuck her head in the chute, waiting for the inevitable groaning of the two wolves when they collided for not leaving enough room between their departures.

Surely enough, as soon as she heard the thud of Scott landing in a pile of laundry she heard her father snap at him for not waiting even ten seconds longer. Purposely, the blonde girl counted to ten before she climbed into the chute herself, she knew it would hurt her most with her new wound that slashed across her stomach, she tried to apply pressure to it and she slid down the chute, but inevitably, it still hurt when she crashed into the laundry pile between them, neither of which had moved out of the pile to make room for her.

Though neither had the heart to complain about her crashing into them when she had landed with an agonizing groan escaping her mouth. When Scott's phone had begun to vibrate in his pocket the wolf pulled it out, reading the text from Derek, neither of the Hale's needed him to read it out to know what it was, his face had been as clear as day.

Just when they thought they were getting somewhere by finding an escape route it turned out that nobody had escaped at all, not Derek, Cora, Stiles, Cole, or even Jennifer. While the Alpha and the Dark Druid were trapped in a broken-down elevator, Cora and Stiles had managed to get to the ambulance, the only problem was that there was nobody to drive it, or keys to drive it for that matter. And Cole, the protective brother he was, had headed back into the hospital to find his little sister amongst all of the chaos.

Stiles sat in the back of the ambulance, watching as Cora lay still, luckily this time, she wasn't still enough to stop breathing like she already had in the time they'd been sitting here. He didn't think he had another round of CPR left in him, the first time had been traumatizing enough. He sat, waiting patiently for someone to come, he didn't know who would get to the ambulance first between the three who had locked him in here before running away, or the three who had run off to fight the Voltron wolf. Any of them was an option he was willing to take, he just wanted to know that somehow everyone had made it out alive, even if it was by the skin of their teeth.

"You just hold on a little longer, okay?" Stiles muttered softly to the unconscious girl, even if she wasn't able to talk back to him he felt comfort in talking to someone. "Nell will kill me if you don't get out of this ambulance alive." He sighed, twiddling with his fingers. He wished he had never mentioned the brunette, now that was all he was going to think about, so he tried to digress from the topic of the huntress. "Trust me, if anyone's going to get us out of this, it's Scott. Can't believe I just said that." The boy scoffed at himself. "You know, I actually used to be the one who came up with the plan. Well, or at least a plan B. Now I don't know. Now I'm thinking maybe you were right. You know, maybe... Maybe we are pretty much useless. Maybe all we do is show up and find the bodies." Stiles continued to talk to the girl, letting all of his emotions out while he still could without having a usual remark from her. With all of the emotions, his eyes began swelling with tears. "I don't want to find my father's body."

That was another thought he couldn't quite deal with yet as he took a deep breath, moving on to the next thought that hopefully wouldn't cause him so much pain, he'd had enough pain and worry, he needed a distraction. One that an unconscious girl couldn't quite provide. He laughed slightly as he told the girl she was easier to talk to when she was unconscious, most people were but when it came to confiding in a Hale, it was certainly easier when they couldn't respond.

His faint laughter was cut off by the sound of banging that approached closer to the ambulance, with the hopes that it was someone he wanted to see, Stiles moved closer to the windows, his face pressed against them as he tried to get the best view possible. With a loud growling, the boy moved back slightly, assuming that it may not be any of the people he wanted to see at all, and he had been right. When a large shadow had appeared, a Voltron wolf-shaped shadow, Stiles pressed his back against the ambulance, sitting as far back as he possibly could as he watched the twins walk by, not even looking in his direction.

When the twins had disappeared Stiles sat forward again, his elbows resting on his knees as he bowed his head questioning where everyone had gone, why all of them had been gone for so long. Especially Kinsey and Scott, they clearly weren't fighting Ethan and Aiden who had just passed him, so he couldn't quite figure out where they were, whether he should take it as a good sign, that they had managed to escape them, or that the Voltron wolf had beat them. The boy only had a few minutes to think of all his questions before the silence in the basement turned into footsteps quickly approaching the ambulance. He pressed his ear against the side, listening as they became closer. His heart sank in his stomach as he turned to look at the window, he wasn't sure what he would do, he had nothing to protect him and Cora. She was lay right in the open, it was the first thing anyone would see when they opened the doors. With that thought, he leaned over to lock the doors, giving whoever it was a slightly harder time at getting to them. But as he reached for the door handle a hand slammed against the window, startling him.

"Stiles! Stiles, open the door." Scott pleaded desperately. He and Noelle couldn't carry Peter's weight much longer, as they'd run through the halls to get to the basement the man had begun getting worse again, he needed a lot more than epinephrine.

"Sorry," Stiles mumbled, quickly throwing them open.

"Help me get him in."

Stiles grabbed Peter from the two teenagers, almost throwing him into the ambulance beside him until the wolf has sunk into the seat beside him, he didn't even have the energy to complain about how carelessly Stiles had handled him. He was glad to sit down without the worry of getting up and running from Alpha twins two seconds later.

"Where's Derek and Jennifer?" The boy asked frantically before looking at Noelle, then noticing that her arm was wrapped around her stomach, she had done a poor job of hiding it from him, which was her every intention, as well as placing pressure on the wound. "What happened?"

"We have to go back for them, Cole and Melissa." Noelle insisted.

Stiles didn't try to argue, no matter how much he wanted to, he knew that it was useless, if a slash to the stomach from two merged Alpha twins wasn't going to stop her neither would him, nothing he would say would get through to the girl. As he began explaining the problems that the two may face in going back for everyone Noelle reached into the ambulance, leaning over an unconscious Cora to reach for the medical box. As she hoped it contained a needle and thread for her to give herself some stitches, she needed something to stop the bleed. Stiles tried to look away, focusing on the problems rather than watching Kinsey and the needle, luckily for the blonde girl, it wasn't a wound like the one Scott had gained from the Voltron wolf at the mall, it wasn't so deep, it hadn't gone as far as he had. But for a human, it still hurt like hell, though she remained insistent on not speaking that truth as she muttered Allison's advice to herself again like the huntress had done when she performed the minor surgery on Scott.

Stiles explained that Kali had the keys to the ambulance and that he had seen the twins not even minutes before the three of them had gotten to the basement.

As banging sounded behind them they all looked back at the hospital knowing that was their cue to go back in there and find everyone. Scott looked at Noelle, checking that she was almost finished stitching up her wound, with a few more seconds she threaded the last bit of string before snipping off the excess. She looked at the wolf and nodded, she was ready to head in there and potentially get even more injured by an Alpha. Scott warned the two conscious people in the ambulance to stay there before he and the blonde began rushing back into the hospital without turning back to look at the worried expression of Stiles.

He kept the girl close as they walked back through the darkened halls, flinching at every small sound they heard, of course, Scott heard a lot more than the blonde girl who was relying on his enhanced senses to guide them away from danger and towards the four people they hoped to find. With one noise he heard Scott stopped in the middle of the hallway, stopping Noelle with him as he grabbed onto her arm, pulling her behind him as he acted as a shield.

The two stood looking around in every direction, Noelle remained quiet, not even daring to ask what Scott had heard for them to stop out in the open. In a sudden movement Scott quickly moved the two of them, dodging a punch from the Voltron wolf whose fist landed in a metal cabinet, he tried to sneak an attack on them, but he had failed.

Ethan and Aiden grabbed him, throwing him up the wall as his bones cracked beneath the pressure, and then against a shelving rail. Noelle wished she was capable of using one of her abilities to help him but she was too weak after what Jennifer had done to her, she would be lucky if she could light a candle, leaving her completely defenseless, unable to help Scott as he was gripped by the throat, shoved against the wall as the twins held him high. They didn't have Peter's strength to aid them this time.

"Where is she?" The Voltron wolf growled at the beta. "We're trying not to hurt you."

"Try harder." Scott struggled to speak through the fist clenched around his neck.

"Hey!" Melissa's voice shouted, the twins dropping Scott to the floor. "I'd like to try something." She remarked before pressing a defibrillator on their bare chest sending waves of electricity pulsing through them, it sent sparks until the two twins landed on the floor beside Scott with a groan, no longer the Voltron wolf. Scott and Noelle both looked at the woman with slacked jaws, amazed by the woman's bravery, and well, the fact that a defibrillator could have in fact worked when Stiles had suggested it. "Sweetheart, get up!" Melissa demanded as she held out a hand to help her son off of the floor, he didn't need telling twice as he pulled himself up with it. Noelle hopped over the weak bodies of the two Alpha twins, following the two McCalls as they ran.

Once more than enough distance had been gained between them and the twins their running had slowed to a simple speed walk as Melissa began explaining her exchange with the terrifying Deucalion, she had thought that the Kanima and Gerard was the scariest supernatural creature she would ever come across until tonight when she had met not only Deucalion, the Alpha of Alphas, but his sidekick Kali and her toe-claws. Both Noelle and Scott were confused as to why Deucalion had let the woman go, relieved, but confused, but as Melissa told them, it was the man's gesture of goodwill, no other reason. Which hadn't eased just how confused they were, they didn't know Alpha of all Alpha's had gestures of goodwill in them. He hadn't had enough of it not to kidnap a fifteen-year-old girl and hold her hostage for two years, that was exactly why Scott and Kinsey insisted there had to be a reason for him letting her go, it couldn't be so simple. They didn't believe Deucalion did anything without reason, as the two people who the Alpha wanted in his pack, there had to be a reason. He had his reasons for wanting them and Derek, he had his reasons for not fighting, there was never a situation he hadn't had a reason, even if they hadn't always known the reasons behind his decisions, he had them.

"Well, if that means I should continue to be profoundly terrified, then don't worry about it, I got that covered." Melissa nervously retorted. That feeling was mutual between the three of them.

As a gun clicking echoed through the empty hall Scott's arm stretched out again, trying to stop his mother and the blonde from stepping any further, but he had only successfully blocked one of them. Noelle had already stepped further than he expected her to, making his blockage completely useless as he watched her slowly continue to walk further. He whispered her name as a warning for her to stop, but she'd heard the sound, had he not realized how unlikely it was for a pack of Alpha werewolves to be carrying a gun? There was only a small handful of people she knew to carry such a weapon, less than a handful, three people if she were to be awfully precise. Those three people she had no reason to shield herself from or hide. Scott and Melissa shared a worried look with one another before the wolf followed the young girl, wondering what had gotten into her to make her think she was invincible. Eventually, he stood beside her as they approached a corner, the two nervously poked their heads around their corner, both groups of people jumping out of their skins as they came face to face.

Chris had instinctively raised his gun at the blonde and the wolf, quickly putting it back down with a sigh of relief when he saw it was her in front of him. Isaac had been right to assume that as soon as she was finished convincing Derek about Jennifer she would end up here for Cora, and Cole had finally found his little sister, after finding the Argents and Isaac first.

"Oh, thank God," Cole mumbled as Noelle rushed towards him and Allison, wrapping herself in their arms. Their hug was short-lived before the blonde girl ended up in the arms of the tall werewolf who they'd brought here, he'd been worried sick for the well-being of the girl who had done so much for him. He wasn't prepared to lose his annoying little sidekick yet.

Though as soon as he caught a scent of blood on her and a lot of it, he stepped back, looking over her until he saw the tear in her dress, just about able to see the stitches she'd given herself. "Did you do that?" Chris asked as he nodded at the stitches on her stomach, to which she nodded. "Nice work." He nodded as a proud mentor.

The seven of them began walking through the halls as Scott gave Chris an update on everything that had happened in the time that they had been in the hospital, even if it was less than an hour, plenty of things had happened to all of them. Melissa's exchange with Deucalion, Scott and Noelle's fight with the twins, throwing themselves down a laundry chute, Derek and Jennifer being stuck in a broken-down elevator. Not to mention Jennifer telling everyone that the Alpha of all Alphas wanted not only Derek and Scott but Kinsey too. In the short forty minutes since they had walked through the hospital doors more had happened to them than ever. Chris tried to process the information bit by bit, he couldn't take all of the things that the young wolf was throwing at him, and neither could Melissa who hadn't heard it all herself.

Meanwhile, Noelle, Allison, Cole, and Isaac followed behind Scott and the two adults, all of them were determined to keep the girl at arm's length after hearing what she'd been through, and that she was wanted by the Alpha pack just as much as Jennifer was. Noelle knew that unlike Scott not giving her a lecture or calling her an idiot yet, it was only a matter of time before her other three bodyguards did it for him, and the two of them wouldn't hold back. Allison and the two boys were lethal. The only thing stopping them from unleashing hell on her now was how engrossed they were in listening to Scott's explanation so they could be as much help as possible.

"So they're essentially trapped?" Chris asked the young boy as they all found themselves crowding around in yet another surgical room, it only made sense, the hospital was full of them, and better yet, they all had multiple exits for them to escape out of.

"There's no way of getting them out without turning the power back on," Isaac whispered as they all crowded around an empty gurney, ready to come up with their plan of escape, hopefully with all of the extra brains it would work out better for them. They had a lot of bodies to keep track of, each and everyone needed to get out of the hospital alive. All seven of them in this room, Stiles and the two Hale werewolves that sat in the ambulance, and Derek and Jennifer.

"But wait, wait, wait, if the power's back on, they're gonna hear the elevator moving, right?"

"And they'll be on Derek and Jennifer as soon as it stops," Scott added to his mother's point. "We can't get in a fight with them," Scott tried to reason with the man, he along with Noelle wasn't strong enough to be put through another fight, and if this one was with Kali and Deucalion, they may as well give up while they were ahead.

Chris insisted that they had them now as he looked at his niece, but that hadn't boosted her confidence, nor had it boosted Allison's as she looked at her father with wide eyes, questioning if he was really willing to fight a pack of Alphas. Frankly, it was quite hypocritical after he had told them to keep out of the whole werewolf business, now he was assisting them further involved than even they had ever intended. Scott disagreed as he shook his head, he wasn't willing to let any of them get any deeper into this mess than they already were. He had kept secrets for the very purpose of keeping them all safe, the last thing he was going to do was willing let them all pursue a fight with Deucalion and his pack, he had fought them if times tonight to know how it would end. They had all seen the aftermath of a fight with the Alphas, they all knew that what they all needed now was a safe escape route that avoided all fighting. He wasn't sure that the man had quite comprehended the effects of Jennifer dying, it would cost them Cora and the Sheriff's life, without her, they couldn't do anything to save them.

"I don't even think I know which teacher this is" Chris admitted.

"She's... She's the one with the brown hair." Isaac began, realizing that it didn't particularly narrow down the list of teachers at the school. "She's kind of hot." He added with a nod. All of them turned to look at him, confused as to whether he had just called his English teacher who happened to be the Dark Druid hot. "No, it's... Just an observation."

Scott noticed the look on Allison's face as she looked straight into a mirror at her brunette hair, he didn't like that look. It was her "I've got an idea." look. And she did, it was perfect, it risked a fight, but as her father had said, they had them now, they had enough people to create multiple diversions and lead the Alphas on a wild goose chase.

It was a simple plan, but a risky one. As the one who had come up with the idea, and the only brunette at their disposal Allison was the one to follow through with it. Once everyone in the group had understood the plan and agreed to follow through with it the group separated. Issac and Cole rushed outside to Chris's SUV where Allison had instructed them to wait, the two Argents and Noelle stuck together as they headed to find Jennifer and Derek, Melissa headed to the roof waiting to turn the power on while Scott roamed the halls, ready to run into any of the Alpha pack. After a quick stop at the elevator to retrieve Jennifer's entire outfit the two Argents and Noelle retreated to a hallway far away from Derek and Jennifer.

Noelle held up her phone as she began video calling Cole and Isaac waiting outside, awaiting further instructions. "Are you ready?" She asked as Allison stood beside her, noticing just how uneasy the two looked as he sat in her father's car. She couldn't tell whether they were scared of damaging something of Chris's or because of the instructions they had been given by her and Noelle, maybe even both. "Not nervous, are you?" Noelle asked again with a raised brow.

"Do we look nervous?" Isaac questioned

Noelle and Allison shook their heads, lying through their teeth as they said "No, not at all." She placed the phone down, standing it up so that the boys had a clear view of the hallway before she looked at Allison, both of them shaking their heads in agreement that Isaac and Cole did in fact look nervous, as they had anticipated them to.

"Did they look nervous?" Chris asked the two girls.

"Terrified."

"Yeah, we can still hear you all, very, very clearly." Cole deadpanned.

Allison popped her head into the screen, reminding them to go as soon as they saw the twins. The boys nodded, they understood his role in Allison's plan, but as the girls had seen, they were terrified for the sake of them all. The longer they had to think about the plan the more both of them regretted not arguing against it, especially Cole, he questioned how he had just let Allison agree to be the ones who Ethan and Aiden chased, but then, there were a lot of things that he hadn't said to her that he probably should have.

The very same question that Noelle had asked the boys was the one that she asked Allison before she and Chris left to wait outside of the hospital. With a deep breath, shaking off any second thoughts the huntress agreed that she was prepared to follow through with her own dangerous plan. Once the two of them were out of sight, heading into the stairwell, Allison mumbled a string of assertive phrases to herself, boosting up her confidence before she began running. She made sure to be heavy-footed as she ran, allowing the hells of Jennifer's shoes to click loudly on the tiled flooring laid throughout the hospital. It didn't take long for the twins to find her, both of them were hot on her tail as she ran through each floor of the hospital, reminding herself not to turn around and look at them. Even a simple glimpse of her face would reveal to them both that they had the wrong brunette, with that, her entire plan would fall apart.

As soon as the boys had seen Allison run past the cellphone again, followed by Ethan and Aiden Cole placed the phone down, speeding towards the basement where he could retrieve the two wolves and Stiles from the ambulance. Allison ran out of the hospital, from above, a window had shattered as Kali jumped from one of the higher floors, Ethan and Aiden running through the main entrance just like Allison had. When she reached the gutter she grabbed the arrow that had been placed there for her, Noelle had come out of her hiding place, as the two of them turned to begin shooting their flash-bang arrows at the three Alpha's they realized that they'd been after the wrong person. They didn't have Jennifer. Chris emerged from the trees, shooting bullets at the three werewolves as they tried to cover their eyes, unable to fight back. They were too overwhelmed by everything that flew towards them until they had no other choice but to retreat and hide. Giving up on fighting against the three hunters.

"Girls, come on!" Chris urged, trying to usher the two of them away from the hospital. Allison had gladly begun walking towards her dad but Kinsey stopped, her eyes looking towards the now illuminated hospital that stood in front of her. "Noelle, we've got to go!"

"Guardian." The blonde mumbled to herself. She looked back. at the hospital with wide eyes, it had taken her too long to figure it out, for all of them to figure it out. Melissa was one of them. A guardian. Her name wasn't on all of the legal documents that came with her guardianship, but that didn't change that she was one of them. Any time that the woman would sign something for her, she would circle the word guardian. That was the kind of Guardian that Jennifer wanted. Not law enforcement. "It's guardians. As in parents."

"What?" Allison muttered in confusion.

"I need to find Melissa."

Three teenagers rushed through the halls, all with the same motive. All of them had finally figured it out, it had taken all of them too long. Now it was a race against time and Jennifer who was about to claim her second Guardian, the one that they had allowed to be left on the roof alone because it had taken them too long to see what was right in front of them. Scott hadn't realized it until he found Derek alone in the elevator, unconscious, then he'd realized the mistake they had all made. Stiles's revelation had been almost identical to Noelle's, when he'd been climbing out of the ambulance, seeing a medical form on the door listing a parent or guardian, his eyes sticking to the word Guardian as he read it. His lightbulb moment. Now all of them were trying to carry themselves quickly to the rooftop. Noelle was the first to rush through the halls of the hospital, taking the staircase closest to the hospital entrance. Scott was next, he had taken the next stairwell after finding an unconscious Derek, momentarily leaving him there. Stiles wasn't far behind his werewolf best friend, in fact, he was close enough to catch a glimpse of Scott as he ran around the corner, he'd planned on finding the werewolf to fill him in on what he'd realized. Only when he saw Derek did he realize they didn't have time for that, it was further gone than he had known, Jennifer was already well on her way to finding a guardian.

Noelle reached the rooftop first, shouting Melissa's name as she frantically looked around for her. From the shadows, a voice answered her calls.

"They're gone" Deucalion stated as he approached her. "Guardians, Noelle. You have one of those, right? Your brother, Cole, he's your legal guardian, isn't he? But then there's Melissa, the woman who took you in. She's a guardian to you too, right?" The man asked though it was clear that he already knew the answer. "If you and Scott were with me I could have told you what it meant. I could've warned you."

Scott reached the rooftop, standing beside the blonde girl who faced Deucalion for the first time alone since she had escaped the vault, truly facing him, she wished it would be the last, but she knew it was stupid to be that hopeful. He was a determined man, just like she was a determined girl, when both of them wanted something they would fight for it, no matter the consequences. The only difference? She wanted good.

The young wolf didn't need to speak for Deucalion to know he was standing beside the girl, his scent had been enough. "Let me help you, Scott. Let's all help each other." He offered them. "You help me catch her, and I'll help you get your mother and Stiles's father back."

"Scott-" Noelle looked at the wolf. "Tell me you aren't actually considering this?"

"I-" He stammered for words.

"We can find them alone, we don't need his offer. I promise we will find them ourselves."

"I can't-" He said with tears in his eyes. "I have to."

Scott stopped towards Deucalion, taking his offer. As he walked closer, Stiles reached the roof, his eyes widening as he watched his best friend edge towards the man with a cane while Noelle stood with a hopeless look across her face.

"Scott don't do this." Stiles tried to plea. "Don't go with him."

"I don't know what else to do."

"No, there's..." Stiles struggled to find the words to say. "Scott, there's got to be something else, okay? We always... We always have a plan B."

Scott turned to look at the two of them, all three of them with tears in their eyes, knowing that this was one fight that couldn't be won with physicality or a fight against the Alphas. Scott could only see one way, and that was giving Deucalion what he wanted, or at least part of it, he didn't expect Noelle to follow him and take the man's offer, but he was going to.

"Not this time." He shook his head.

"Scotty, please," Noelle begged him. "Please."

"I'll find your dad, Stiles. I promise." His final words as he followed Deucalion into the shadows, refusing to look back at the expressions on his best friend's face. He couldn't bear it. He walked away he knew he'd lost everything. The fight against Jennifer. The fight against the Alphas. His chance to keep himself and everyone else away from Deucalion. Noelle and Stiles too.