When she found out Chris Argent had come into town, Katherine had been more than shocked.

Firstly because no one had told her, and secondly because he was helping them deal with Gerard. They spent a short time catching up before she turned the conversation serious. You have to deal with Gerard, she'd told him quietly, or I will.

After that, things had gone quickly and plans were devised.

They were going to take out the hunter's armoury, supplied by Gerard.

Mason and herself would go to the school and bait Nolan into following him to an abandoned zoo on the other side of town to meet 'the pack'. In reality, it would just be Liam and Theo. The others — Scott, Lydia, Malia and Argent — would be waiting for the armoury to empty of guards for reinforcements in hunting. When they had their window, the four would sneak into the armoury and take out whatever they were able to.

The slight hiccup was that nothing went to plan.

Gerard had anticipated them coming at the opportunity and had every weapon removed and moved somewhere else. Scott and Malia nearly died in the process of getting out; there were motion triggers that would suck the oxygen out of the room in case of a fire. Absolutely would've without Lydia using her banshee abilities to scream the air locked door open.

In their escape, they managed to take something that could be important.

A world map with seven red dots, all spaced out across the globe.

Greenland.

America.

Brazil.

Egypt.

Russia.

China

Germany.

They had no idea what it meant. Even Chris, who had been raised by Gerard Argent, understood what it could be. They kept it safe with Chris regardless.

In the hours that followed, Katherine was surprised to see Theo drop Liam off in her driveway. Both his hands were bloody along with his shirt, and he moved with his shoulders drawn up, as if he was afraid or ashamed.

She met him at the front door.

"It didn't go well?" She guessed softly. Liam didn't have to answer; the tears he was holding back were enough. "Come on," she murmured, tugging him inside. "You go upstairs and get comfy, I'll grab snacks and we can watch movies tonight, okay?"

He sniffed once, nodded, kicked off his shoes, and started his way up the stairs.

As she promised, Katherine went to get snacks.

Automatically, she grabbed pop tarts. There were a few different kinds so she grabbed them all, along with a carton of chocolate milk, popcorn, ice cream and then some frozen raspberries. When she got upstairs, he was curled up in a ball under her bed sheets with his hands over his ears.

She immediately dropped everything and ran to him. "I almost killed him," he choked out without moving.

Shit it really didn't go well.

Okay, I'm the calm one right now and that's okay. Deep breaths.

"Who, if you don't mind me asking?"

A choked breath; "Nolan."

Well, it could've been worse—

Katherine no

"I'm going to run your back, is that okay, Liam?" A jerky nod. She moved her hand to do so. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I don't know."

"That's okay." She took a deep breath. "Can I ask what you did to your hands?"

Finally, Liam unfurled himself and looked up at her. "I punched a wall."

"You punched a wall."

"Yeah."

She stared at him. "How many times did you punch the wall, Liam, because it looks like you got into a fight with concrete." He looked up at her silently. "Oh my fuck, you punched a concrete wall!"

His smile was brief, sheepish, and primarily sad as he looked down. "Only, like...eight times..."

"Jesus Christ," Katherine muttered and rubbed her temples. "Are they okay?"

"Broken knuckles, but they'll be fine," he shrugged.

She took another look at his bloody knuckles and cringed as she could see a couple spots where they had snapped. "That's disgusting," she grimaced and looked away from them.

He cracked a smile, and it was enough for her to smile back.

"You don't need to tell me what happened, but I think it'll help," she said softly.

Liam bit down on his lip hard. "I was already struggling with being there," he admitted. Katherine waited for him to continue, but he didn't. "He had a crossbow aimed at me," he said after a long beat of silence. "He said I have to kill you, she'll kill me if I don't, he got closer to me and I just..."

"I'm not here to judge you," Katherine reminded him and set a hand on his knee. "I'm just here to listen, and to make sure you take care of yourself."

His bottom lip quivered. "I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and — and slammed him into one of the walls — it was concrete — and I was almost gone, Kat, I barely remember it...I wanted to get rid of him so badly but I knew I couldn't, I needed to do something so I punched the wall beside his head until..." She nodded encouragingly. "Until Theo knocked me out and let him go."

Katherine stayed quiet for a moment, processing everything he said.

Liam nearly lost control of himself.

He almost killed Nolan.

Chose not to.

Theo hit him.

Barely remembers it.

Hurt himself.

"Why did Theo knock you out?" Was what she decided to start with.

He grimaced. "I don't remember, so I guess I did lose it."

"So you calmed down once you guys got back to his truck."

Again, Liam cringed. "No...he had to knock me out five times before I was in control of myself."

"Shit," she muttered to herself.

The tears had returned to his pretty blue eyes, and she wanted to make everything go away. He deserved peace. They all did. "I don't know what to do," Liam whispered. His hands began to tremble. "Maybe they're right because I'm dangerous, Katherine."

A little part of her heart broke.

This was the boy who had gone through his entire childhood being told he needed to be fixed. He was told he was too much, he needed to calm down and was put on time outs daily for his behaviour. Then he comes to a new school where things get even worse, as he's brought into a world where he's hunted and concerned for his life daily. He eventually gets it under control, only to have it ripped away by a bullshit shape shifter that enjoys causing problems for other people.

And now he was questioning himself.

Mason told her what he knew about the Anuk Ite — the bullshit shape shifter — that had escaped from the wild hunt. A creature of Disharmony, he'd said. It feeds off people's fear and anger.

It was the reason the town had gone to hell.

"We should've talked about this in the fuckin' well," Katherine sighed.

Instead of being upset now, Liam just looked generally confused. "What?"

Katherine stared at him for a moment. "You don't remember the time you almost died of wolfsbane poisoning and I almost died of hypothermia—"

"—Katherine, it was May—"

"—I almost died—"

"—you didn't almost die—"

"—Liam shut up, we both almost died and you were the world's worst rock climber for, like, three hours."

"...I remembered it, but I can't figure out why you're talking about it now."

She got more comfortable on the bed and tilted her head, smiling faintly. "You told me that day that instead of hurting others, you hurt yourself. I wasn't there so I have no idea what you were feeling, but you're right, you are dangerous." He bit harshly at his lip again. "I'm dangerous. Scott's dangerous. Malia's dangerous. Chris is dangerous. Even fuckin' Deaton is dangerous. Anyone can be dangerous, Liam. The point is whether they act on it or not."

"I did, though...act on it, I mean."

"And you did everything you could to stop it. You aren't a bad person, babe, there's some kind of ancient bullshit shape shifter in town that undoing all the work you've done in the last year. That isn't your fault. You're trying. That's all any of us can ask of you."

Before Liam could say anything, her phone buzzed on the floor across the room in a pattern that told her it was Mason. She hopped off the bed to answer it. "Hey, Mase; what's up?"

"They're Nematon's."

Katherine blinked twice. "Excuse me?"

"The seven locations on the map; they're Nematon's."

She paused and considered all the possibilities. "They won't stop in Beacon Hills," she realized, a hand coming up to her mouth. "They want the world...they want everything gone."

Mason shuddered out a breath. "Chris thinks so."

Nematon's.

Pillars of power for supernatural creatures all over the place. A homing beacon. A symbol of power.

And now, bait.

Gerard had the location of seven of these beacons. Seven.

Seven places where thousands of supernatural creatures would flee for safety and land right in the arms of the hunters. "Shit," Katherine muttered.

She raked a hand through her hair as Mason said, "shit doesn't even begin to cover it."