WARNING: non descript mentions of vomiting near the end!!!

"Someone needs to explain to me how the fuck the only FBI agent that's been sent to Beacon Hills is Scott's dad," Katherine panted as she ran down the hallway with Liam. "Because honestly, this is ridiculous. People have been dying every year since I was in eighth grade, and the FBI have been like eh, they'll be fine, they've got a whole sheriff and three deputies, what more could they need?" She heaved in a dry breath that all but rattled her lungs. "Hotch would never let this stand—"

"—Katherine, you're awesome, but we've got a probably dead freshman in the shower," Liam huffed.

"Yeah, yeah, dead kid," she huffed out, but it was just to keep herself from getting overwhelmed again.

They ran until they met up at the agreed upon place with Mason and Corey, who both looked mildly panicked. "Library is empty," Mason wheezed.

Corey, who sounded completely fine in terms of breathing, nodded. "Gym too."

"Okay, Aaron—" Hotcher, she thought, then immediately threw it out of her mind "—is the only one we can't get a hold of."

"Did anyone check the parking lot?" Mason asked, having caught his breath slightly. "See if his car is still there?"

"We were just about to do that," Katherine panted.

They took the hallways at a jog now, more than likely for hers and Mason's sake as the two of them were wheezing again. They were nearly at the front doors, just passing the history room when Liam lurched to a stop and Katherine, with her coordination, sprinted right into him.

She let out an oof as her chest hit his back, but Corey was there to keep her from hitting the ground. Then she saw why Liam had stopped.

In the classroom, sitting at the front and centre seat, was a young kid with his head shaved and wearing a lacrosse jersey. Aaron. He had his arms up on the desk as he stared through the half opened blinds of the front window, unmoving.

"What the hell," Katherine mumbled.

They all quietly walked into the classroom to where he was sitting, in a single file line; first Liam, then Mason and herself with Corey following at the end.

"Aaron," Liam called out carefully.

Slowly, with a perfectly calm smile, Aaron turned to look at them. "Hey guys," he said, without any real emotion behind it.

"Thank god you're okay," Mason blurted out before she could nudge him back a step. "Where have you been?"

"I forgot we have a history test tomorrow," was the answer they got: as if it would explain everything.

"We've been trying to call you," Liam frowned.

Aaron grabbed his phone and pressed the power button a few times before shrugging. "I guess it must've died."

From there, after another twenty minutes of talking, Liam was able to convince him to go home and study. They waited another five after he left, just to be sure he didn't circle back for any reason, and then called Melissa who promised to have the situation with the body dealt with. From that point, they went out to their respective cars.

She waved goodbye to Corey as he pulled out of his spot and went home, then hugged Mason and kissed Liam; the two were going back to the latter's house for video games and bro time, as she called it.

"Are you sure you want to wait for Scott?" Liam asked her for the third time, his hands holding her hips.

"Yes," she rolled her eyes. "He texted me a few minutes ago and said he's on his way."

Liam stared at her uncertainly for a moment, and it took Katherine jokingly chasing him to the car with her bat for him to leave with Mason.

It wasn't even two minutes after that, that she was watching her brother's blue jeep roll into the parking lot; Stiles' parting gift to Scott before he left for the FBI academy. "Hey Scotty," she chirped as she climbed into the passenger seat.

But he wasn't smiling. "Something's happened," he said gently, those brown eyes of his filled with worry. For her.

Immediately, Katherine was squaring her shoulders. She wasn't prepared for Lori to lean over from the back seat. "It's Brett," her friend said. Katherine turned around and took one glance at the bloody lacrosse stick laying across Lori's lap, and was instantly flooded with a kind of calm she had never felt before.

She then phoned Liam, who told Mason and then Corey; Scott had already called Malia and Lydia, the former of whom was joining them on the search while the latter went to the school for an 'after hours study period' in order to try and trigger a premonition.

When everyone arrived and they had gotten themselves organised, Liam looked ready to ask her to stay behind at the school. She didn't give him the chance to as she followed Scott and Lori onto the lacrosse field and over to the forest at the edge.

Katherine didn't care if she had to pay with her sanity to make it happen; she was going to find Brett and bring him back.

Then, she would deal with whoever had decided to hunt him.

They marched into the blanket of trees, moonlight filtering through whatever gaps in the branches it could find. A cool wind blew by, and she gripped tightly to Lori's hand as her friend led her through the woods. In her other hand she held tightly to her bat, constantly adjusting her grip on it. Stiles called it a nervous tic; she called it sweaty hands and not wanting to drop it.

Even if she hadn't already wanted to kill whoever had done this, the devastation on Lori's face would have been enough to make up her mind. Now, it only added to the muted rage that was building in her chest.

They went on until Liam was sprinting ahead. They found him standing at a tree with an arrow embedded in the bark. She didn't need to be a werewolf to see the blood drying to it, or the puddles of red-black staining the dirt where she stood. Some of it smeared on her shoe, and she had to wipe it away on the grass.

"I think he set a trap," Liam stated, studying the arrow.

"He's fighting back," Scott breathed out.

Malia opened her arms slightly. "Now we know he's alive."

"He better be," Katherine exhaled, forcing her breathing to stay steady. The look Liam gave her was full of concern, anxiety, and something else she couldn't name. But it made her heart flutter.

Just a second later Lori was letting go of her hand and ripping the bloody arrow from the tree. "But he's still hurt. We need to find him, we need him to know we're here." She readied herself to roar, only to be stopped by Malia.

"Do you want the hunter to know we're here too?" She demanded.

"He's new," Liam cut in hopefully. "We can take him."

But she was wary. "What if Brett howls back," Katherine asked quietly, "and leads the hunter right to him."

"No, we could find him first," Scott said, the same hope on his face. "There's no human that can track sound faster than we can, we've got the advantage, we've done this before, we know what we're doing, guys.

Gently, Liam reached over to take the arrow from Lori.

"Why can't I catch his scent," Malia demanded.

"He's masking it," Lori said.

Malia huffed unhappily. "Can someone tell him not to."

But Katherine was already wandering away from them, slowly following a trail of blood drops leading away from the tree. The first puddle was huge, as if he had laid in one spot for a long period of time, and then had gotten up. The rest were smaller, which meant he had kept moving. "He went this way," she stated, quickening her pace.

Liam and Lori followed after her while the other two looked over something else back at the tree.

They ran and ran in pursuit of those trails until finally, finally, they stopped.

The clearing in front of that last splatter held nothing. Not a footprint, not a scuff mark; nothing. The three of them wandered around looking for anything that could help until Scott and Malia finally caught up. The two of them joined in with the search until finally, Malia huffed. "the trail's gone.

"Maybe he just stopped bleeding," Scott suggested optimistically.

Liam sighed. "I think we should split up," he suggested. "Me, Lori and Kat go this way and you two go that way."

"Or maybe we go in five directions?" Lori asked.

Malia shook her head and folded her arms over her chest. "We should stick together."

"Agreed," Katherine nodded.

She had to step away as Malia and Liam began bickering on what to do next. She was too exhausted to even think about it properly. Brett, who had taken care of her when Liam was too busy being a dick to notice how he was behaving, was bleeding somewhere. Alone and afraid.

Everything had started at the school, and she'd been too wrapped up in herself to even notice when she knew full well that he would have if the roles had been reversed. Brett would have been there to help to the best of his ability,

Katherine hated that she hadn't noticed his car was still in the parking lot that night. That she hadn't seen the blood on the pavement from his injuries, or heard the gunshots like Lori had.

In all her years of knowing about the supernatural, she had never wanted to be a werewolf. She knew that it would just add another chaotic pile of shit to her life that she wouldn't be able to handle.

But standing there in the woods, with all of them using their heightened abilities to find him while she held onto a fucking bat and waited, it was all she could think of.

•••••

"The hunter," Liam was then saying, drawing her out of her thoughts. "He's covering his tracks."

"There's more...maybe more than two," Scott breathed out.

He was kneeling in the dirt in front of several sets of footprints, all having been uncovered.

"How many hunters have you seen out here," Lori demanded, sounding close to desperate at this point.

Scott only sighed. "A lot."

"Still wanna split up?" Malia asked Liam with raised brows.

"We can deal with it," he grumbled back. "We just need to find Brett's trail."

"No we don't!" Lori blurted out, stumbling two steps over to the stump of a tree. A tower of rocks was neatly balanced on top of it, going from the smallest at the top to the largest at the bottom. "Rock balancing; Satomi taught us. And I know where he's going."

•••••

Somehow, as it always seemed to these last months, this brought them down to the water treatment tunnels.

Walking on that pavement reminded her of a puddle of brain on the floor of a chamber, of Theo screaming as he was dragged underground. After the first step inside her heartbreak was erratic and her hands were shaking, but she wasn't going to turn around.

Not when they were so close.

After less than five minutes of walking they came across a puddle of blood with a white clump in it. "He's been poisoned," Lori blurted out frantically before she had the chance to.

Scott grimaced. "That's why he isn't healing."

Lori turned to her, those terrified blue eyes wide. "What if he's only got a few hours to live? We don't know how long ago he was poisoned."

"If we howl we can find him," Liam spoke up quietly.

But Malia was shaking her head. "Too risky."

"Who cares about the risk," Lori choked out, "he could be dying."

She watched Malia stalk over to the larger of the blood puddles and gesture at it, "he's still moving."

"We just need time to think," Scott breathed out in an attempt to diffuse the situation.

"I need him to know I'm here," Lori shook her head, all but glaring at them. "That I'm coming to get him."

"Lori's right," Liam cut in.

Katherine couldn't help but begin nodding as well. "He should know he isn't alone in this," she agreed quietly.

Before anyone could say another word, Liam was roaring.

It echoed through the concrete tunnels loud enough that she plugged her ears, feeling the mild panic over the possibility of her eardrum bursting again. But then Malia was tugging her along as they raced down the tunnels.

"Why didn't he answer," Lori asked unevenly.

"Maybe he didn't hear it," Liam huffed.

"Or maybe he just couldn't," Malia muttered. Katherine gave her a light smack on the arm for that.

"Lori no!" Scott bellowed out.

She turned to her friend first, who had kicked a thin, nearly invisible cord with her boot. Then she turned to Scott, only to find him pinned to the concrete wall with an iron spear embedded in his stomach.

"Fuck," Katherine choked out.

It took her and Liam holding him against the wall while Lori and Malia heaved out several tries before the spear finally came out of him.

"They knew we were coming," Scott groaned.

Malia waved a hand in his face and pressed some cloth against his wound. "Shut up and just...heal; let us figure this out, okay?"

"They've been a step ahead of us this whole time," Scott panted.

"I'm sorry, but I need to go I can't wait any more," Lori cut in frantically, and while Katherine understood perfectly the type of panic her friend was feeling, she truly did, she was ready to smack her upside the head.

"We still have the numbers," Liam piped in, and she was ready to smack him too. "Three versus two, we're faster and stronger—"

"—they're smarter," Scott all but snarled at him and that was all she needed to know he was thinking about the Argent's.

"I don't care who's smarter, or faster, or whatever," Lori groaned, "my brother is going to die."

Scott shook his head rapidly, sweat now covering his skin as the healing process ran its course. "Something's not right," he said, and Katherine would've smacked him upside the head if he hadn't been injured already because of course this isn't right we just yanked an iron spear out of your actual intestines. "The arrow, the trip wire, the poison," he continued on, seeing what she was thinking clear as day from the look on her face and choosing to ignore it. "These aren't amatures."

"They've never fought us before—"

"—and you've never fought hunters, Liam," Scott snapped at him. "We need to stick together."

"I need to go," Lori corrected firmly.

"You're not going alone, I'm going with you," Liam cut off whatever else she was going to say.

"You don't know who they are or what they're capable of," Scott tried again.

Slowly, Katherine was shaking her head. "But I do.

They all looked to her. "Chris and Allison taught me more than any of you would ever need to know," she explained quietly, "because I can't rely on claws and fangs or super speed; because I'm not a werewolf. They...they taught me how to be careful, especially when I'm out numbered and I—" she steeled herself, forcing her anxiety down into a little box within her before she closed the lid and put a lock on it. "I'll get them to Brett, you two catch up when you can."

"He's one of us, Scott," Liam added in softly. "We don't leave others behind."

After a long moment of staring at them, Scott sighed. "Okay go, all of you. I'll catch up."

But when they reached the end of the tunnel, she could see that Malia was still kneeling with him and likely telling him to shut up again. That, even under these circumstances, made her smile.

Then they were running again, and she couldn't look back until they stopped at a T-shape in the tunnels; "which way," Liam demanded frantitically. "There's gotta be something, did he leave any signals? More rocks?"

"I don't see anything," Lori shook her head. She inhaled shakily. "I don't hear anything."

Katherine felt the panic within that mental box swell, and Liam was immediately grabbing her hand. "We'll find something," he promised both of them. "He's going to be okay."

Lori looked up at him. "How do you know?"

"Because he's strong," Liam admitted after a long moment. "He's really strong. He's knocked me down on the lacrosse field more than once and now when I see him coming, I do whatever I can to get the hell out of the way."

She wanted to tell him he was a lying moron because he'd been tackled to the ground at least a dozen times that morning while the freshmen watched, but she didn't want to ruin the moment.

A tear rolled down Lori's cheek. "Brett actually started playing lacrosse for me...I didn't have any friends at my old school, Devonford Prep needed lacrosse players...and he practised all summer and got a scholarship, and told them that they had to take me if they wanted him."

To stop herself from crying, Katherine surged forward and pulled the girl into her arms. "I'll always be your friend," she promised sternly as she pulled away. "Now let's go find him."

But the two of them were already turning to the left, her upper lips curled faintly in disgust. Whatever it was, Katherine didn't know until; "Smell that?" Liam asked slowly, frowning. "It smells...rotten."

"Poison?" Katherine asked quietly.

"That's how we'll find him," Lori breathed out, sounding almost calm.

They took off down the tunnels.

After nearly five minutes of sprinting, Lori was asking if they were going the right way and Katherine could only snort.

"We've gotten lost down here dozens of times," Liam sighed as an explanation. "Just follow the scent."

"I hate the scent," Lori muttered.

Then Liam was holding up a hand, stopping them all. "Wait, I hear...it sounds like..."

"A heartbeat," Lori gasped.

For the first time that night, Katherine felt something akin to relief flood through her. She sprinted at the front, eyes scanning the surrounding areas for any sign of a trap before the tunnel opened up into a small room, and there he was.

Sitting against the wall in a puddle of his own blood, was Brett. He was bleeding black blood now, which she knew wasn't a good sign. It was dripping from his ears, mouth and nose, had dried in his hair, soaked his clothes...but she didn't care. Just seconds before Lori got there Katherine had fallen to her knees in front of him and yanked him in for a hug. "Oh my god," she breathed out, her entire body shaking with relief. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god."

"Hey," he croaked out, then turned to look at Lori who fell into place beside her. "You found the rocks."

"Yeah, I found the rocks," his sister promised, tears streaming down her face.

Katherine stood up and threw herself into Liam's arms, both wanting them to have a moment and needing to regulate herself so she didn't crumble right then and there. He held her tightly against him, forehead pressed against hers as she inhaled shuddering breaths.

Then Brett panted out a "Liam," and they were hauling him off the ground.

"You're a dumbass for doing this," Brett groaned out as they got him somewhat steadily onto his feet.

"Is that your way of thanking me?" Liam snorted. But he was holding him up anyway.

"No," Brett choked, "that's my way of calling you a dumbass."

Then something at the end of the tunnel sparked, and fog began blooming from around the corners and Liam was urging them to leave. Him, Lori and Brett all had their hands covering their ears which helped her understand that the hunter had used one of the high-frequency arrows to stun them, and she was shoving them towards the nearest tunnel exit. One that would take them up to the street.

"Here I was, thinking you liked us," Katherine smiled tearily as she took a quick check behind her. "But apparently we've been demoted to dumbasses again."

"Not you, Kat," Brett panted as Katherine gave Lori directions. She caught up with them just in time for him to look over at her and say earnestly, "never you."

It wasn't long after that, that they were practically dragging Brett along. He really didn't look good. But Katherine knew they were near an exit, and silently begged him to hold on until they could get there.

Then she would haul him to the animal clinic and hope Deaton could save him like he did the last time Brett was poisoned.

Finally the metal rungs of the ladder came into view and she was urging Lori in that direction. She went up first and forced the manhole cover up and onto the street, then came back down and forced Brett to get out first. Then she went, and Katherine followed them up.

But she paused because for a second, she thought she heard Liam screaming at them from way down in the tunnels.

That was all it took.

Katherine had three rungs between the top of her head and the street when the truck sped over top of her. She could feel the air move and the heat of it, but didn't fully comprehend what had happened until she heard those awful, resonating snaps of bone.

Then she was flying up the rungs.

She knew that if Liam was yelling that he would be okay.

When her feet toughed the pavement and she could properly see what had happened, she stumbled forward and threw up. Everywhere.

Because Brett and Lori were a tangled pile of clothes and limbs on the road just steps from the curb.

Blood was everywhere.

Katherine couldn't breathe.

She stood there and stared at them, unable to comprehend what the fuck had just happened.

They had escaped the hunters and surely, surely this had to be her mind playing tricks on her because this felt like Allison all over again.

Your fault.

This was her doing.

Your fault.

She had brought them all this way, just to get them killed in a freak car accident.

Your fault.

Then she was running to them, not caring that the asphalt skinned her knees raw when she landed, or that she was kneeling in a puddle of blood. She could feel Liam close behind her as she carefully lifted Brett's head into her lap, one hand cradling his face while the other went to Lori who had moved to lay with her on the ground.

Katherine stared down at his face; the face that had made her laugh and blush and frown and cry and feel every emotion she possibly could have in his presence. His skin was pale and what struck her was just how quickly someone's skin went cold after their blood stopped pumping, after their heart stopped beating. Because without question, Brett Talbot was dead.

"I couldn't take his pain," Lori wheezed out from beside her, and Katherine felt her heart still. Then they were both sobbing. "I couldn't take away his pain," Lori nearly wailed the second time, setting her head on her brother's chest.

Somehow, she had forced her hands to still. She settled her free hand — the one that wasn't holding Brett — onto Lori's head and gently began stroking her hair because Katherine had watched enough horrible things happen to know when someone was giving up. It was clear because Lori, with all her broken bones and internal injuries, laid there and denied her enhanced ability to heal.

"I've got you," Katherine promised her shakily, voice thick with tears. "I've got you, I've got you."

Your fault.

Lori stared up at her until her eyes closed that final time, and Katherine could only sit there. She couldn't bring herself to move away from them, even as their skin became chilled beneath her touch. It only took minutes.

From behind her, Liam let out a roar of utter agony and it took everything in her to keep from crying. Cars slowed to a stop near the truck that had hit them, on the opposite side of the road, all of them able to see Liam's golden eyes and furry face.

But Katherine couldn't bring herself to care about that either, because Brett and Lori were dead.

Slowly, she looked up at the middle aged man that climbed out of the truck and just stared, and that was when she knew. It was both the haircut, the clothes, and the lack of horror on his face that told her everything she needed to know.

She watched him nod to a pair standing on the sidewalk and could only stare, at Gerard Argent and the school councillor, Monroe, and she knew. They were behind this somehow. Gerard was easily at fault as this had his manipulative games written all over the road in blood.

But Monroe...she had to be the new, inexperienced hunter. One who had just gained herself a mentor.

A kind of numbness spread over her as Katherine stared them down until she caught their gaze; Monroe looked away immediately while Gerard just stared back, that sadistic satisfaction on his face.

Your fault.

Katherine looked down at the two dead bodies in her lap, then slowly looked back at them, and it was in those seconds that she made up her mind. It didn't matter if it ruined her career, her love life, or any chance at a future.

They were going to die, and she was going to be the one to do it.

A/N: I hope you all understand what I had to put myself through to write this 😒
For realzies tho, until I get going on the Brett fic that's in my drafts, you're gonna have to deal with KatXdead!Brett angst because I'm having a reallllll rough time with my antidepressants lmao