"strange frequencies"

CASSIE HAD ALWAYS BEEN A normal girl, with nothing exactly special about her, nothing that stood out, anyway. But that's just how the girl liked it, she liked fitting in and blending into the background, it was just how Ellie and her had enjoyed their years during school. Even if Cassie used to be popular, people moving out of her way in the hallways during school, the girl had lost her touch, having been skipping, or acting like a complete freak during school hours; she was still fitting in nicely. When Deaton had told her and the others that she was a Phoenix, it was the last thing on Earth that she expected to hear. She knew that something was wrong a while ago, but she had been too cowardly to say anything to her brother, Scott or Liam, and she knew now that it was a mistake, she shouldn't have kept it all from them, and because she had, none of them know how to fix her as it was too late, the dread doctors had already gotten to her, and they had no idea how to turn her back. She was stuck.
No one knew what to do with the fact that Cassie wasn't a human anymore, she was supernatural, and there was no coming back from that. Stiles wanted to beat himself up because he didn't notice what was going on with his little sister - even Deaton didn't know what to do, he had never had any experience with Phoenix's before, he wasn't even sure they existed. He didn't know why the dread doctors chose her, but it was a good choice for them, none the less, as Cassie was now, successfully a finished experiment to the dread doctors.

The girl sat in the vets, on the surgery table, as Stiles paced in front of her, running his hand through his hair in stress as he honestly didn't know how to help the girl, and neither did Scott. They wanted to help her, they wanted to make sure the dread doctors didn't lay a hand on her again, but they knew that they wanted her still, to finish their experiment, and Scott didn't know how to keep her safe. These doctors were stronger than all of them combined, and the alpha knew that his pack had no chance against them, and that's what scared him the most - he couldn't save everybody, maybe not even his own sister. Stiles looked up at him for answers, for a way to keep the girl safe, but Scott couldn't figure out a plan, yet, he was still thinking, planning and praying that there was a way to save this girl..
Liam was thinking non-stop about trying to come up with a way to save his girlfriend, but the truth was, he looked up to Scott, he saw him as a brother, and knew that his alpha would come up with a way to save Cassie, but none of them knew that Scott had something completely different in mind..

"So you're basically using me as bait?" Cassie asked Stiles, after hearing what the plan would be - she knew that she could trust Scott, that was obvious, but she didn't trust this plan, she didn't think it was going to work, they didn't know how the dread doctors worked, they could come in with a completely different plan of action, and maybe it will catch Scott off guard, then what? "I don't really mind, Stiles, but what if the dread doctors win, then what's gonna happen?" She asked, not wanting to show it, but she was terrified, but Stiles could see, and it broke his heart.

Her brother instantly shook his head at her, knowing that that is not what is happening, Scott would never use their girl as bait, and he wouldn't allow it, either. "It's not bait, Cass. The school will be easier to fight them and protect you, Scott, Malia and Lydia will all be there." Stiles explained, the girl sighing at his words, knowing that the three of them were good, "We would never put you in danger like that, okay?" He assured her, noticing the uneasy look on her face.

Even after his words, it didn't convince Cassie, and it definitely didn't make her feel any better, and definitely not any safer - she just wanted to go home to her dad, tell him everything and apologise for the fact she had kept this all from him and that she should have told him everything when she started having these hallucinations. Not only should she have told her dad, but Stiles, too. She sighed, "I'm sorry." She apologised, Stiles furrowing his brows in confusion at her words, not knowing what she could possibly be sorry for. "I didn't tell any of you what was happening to me, I thought I was going crazy, Sti. I didn't want to be sent off like mom had." Cassie admitted, looking up at her brother as a tear fell down her cheek, Stiles' heart breaking at the sight of it and her words.

"Hey, hey, hey." Stiles spoke up, pulling the girl in for a hug as she leaned onto his shoulder, sniffing as she tried to hold the tears back, "You'll never be sent off, I won't allow it, ok? You're not crazy, and you never will be." He said, the girl looking up at him to see truth in his eyes, knowing that he meant what he said.

"They were haunting me." Cassie admitted, knowing that she needed to open up about what had been happening to her, "They were everywhere, in my dreams, in my eyesight, my thoughts, everywhere, like they were haunting me, rubbing it in my face that they had me." She said, remembering how awful it had been to see the dread doctors everywhere she turned, "I think they were following me, watching me to make sure I wasn't a failure." She finished, Theo listening in in the other room as he actually felt bad for the young girl, not knowing how much the dread doctors had been haunting her like this.

Stiles still couldn't believe that he hadn't noticed this, his sister must be really good at hiding her emotions as he never once realised that she was in pain, that she was being haunted like this - he just wished that she had said something sooner, as they may have been able to do something about it instead of now, where they only had one night to prepare and figure out a plan to keep her away from the doctors and their experiments. "I'm sorry I didn't notice." Stiles said, the girl shaking her head, about to protest, when Stiles carried on before she had the chance. "I'm your big brother, I should be able to see things like this, I should have known, and I should have protected you." He told her, pulling her in for a hug yet again. "I'm sorry."



Scott hadn't told anyone that he did actually intend to use Cassie as bait - he knew that the dread doctors would be coming after her tonight and he knew that he needed a distraction so he could try and defeat them. Lydia knew about this, and even Malia, and as bad as they felt about lying to Stiles, Cassie and Liam, they knew that Scott was the alpha, and they couldn't exactly say no to him.. It broke their hearts as much as it did with Stiles, Cassie was like a sister to all of them, and they just didn't want to see her get hurt, but this was bigger than her, and they all knew that they had to stop the dread doctors once and for all. If Liam knew, he would literally try and kill Scott, so they had to keep the boy out of the loop - Cassie was his whole world, he would do anything to keep the girl out of harms way, and putting his trust all in to Scott was making the alpha feel awful that he was lying to his beta, as well as his best friend.
The two teenagers just never thought that Scott would put them in harms way, but after tonight, everything was going to change..

"I'm scared." Cassie admitted to Liam, as they both sat down in front of the lockers on the floor, the others pacing the room as they got ready for the dread doctors arrival. She leaned on his shoulder, watching the wall in front of them as she didn't know what else to say to him; there wasn't anything else to say, they could possibly die tonight.. "I don't want to see them again, Liam." She said, remembering her dreams and how awful it had been whilst on the surgery table, going through large amounts of pain. Needles sticking into her body, her veins, and even her brain, she didn't want to go through any more torture.

"I won't let that happen." Liam assured her, holding her close as he looked up at Scott whom had looked over at Cassie in guilt at her words, knowing deep down what he was planning and that he was lying to her.

"Well, what's going to happen to me? I'm not even human anymore." Cassie said, now looking up at him, "I hurt you, I could've hurt Stiles or Scott." She added, knowing that Stiles wouldn't have healed after being burnt by her, he was only human, not like the others.

"You can learn to control it, I won't let you hurt anyone, I promise you." Liam said, knowing that he had had a pretty hard time when he first turned into a werewolf, but after Scott helped him through it, he could now control his anger; he could do the same with her, and he knew that he could help her through it, she was strong, stronger than anyone he knew. She could get through this.

"I'm not like you, Liam. I'm not a werewolf, I'm an experiment, it's a lot different." Cassie said, as Liam shook his head at her words.

"I'm going to help you get through it." He said, hating that she was so adamant that she wasn't going to be able to get through this. It may not be the same, but they were both supernatural; they both had to work to control their abilities, it didn't matter if Cassie was an experiment, to him, she was so much more than that.

Cassie smiled, looking up at him again, "If you get me through this, we need to have our first date." She told him, as they still hadn't had a proper date like every other teenage couple; their dates consisted of running from the supernatural.. All Cassie wanted to do was go for a meal, or even just see a movie, something normal.

Liam smirked, "Deal." He said, leaning in first as she followed suit, their lips meeting as electricity soared through their body at the touch. She didn't know this, but Cassie's eyes glowed a bright orange as she kissed the boy she loved, and her fingertips formed small flames, but it didn't hurt Liam, not this time. She reached her hand up and cupped the side of his face as he stroked the hair away from her face, feeling the heat rise up as the kiss deepened - Scott watched for just a few seconds before he turned away, feeling like he was invading their privacy, but he just couldn't help but see himself and Allison in the two teens, how he was when he first fell in love with her. He could just tell that the two of them were going to last..
The worries of the dread doctors had vanished from her mind for just a few seconds as Cassie kissed the boy she loved, when she felt heat in her fingertips, pulling back and gasping at the sight of the flames engulfing her fingers. Liam was quick to react, knowing that it hadn't burnt him as she just had her hand on his face, he pulled her hand and gripped it, knowing he was right and the fire did not harm him - he raised the small hand back to his face, the girl watching in shock as she didn't hurt him. She let the hand rest there, before the flames slowly disappeared, her hand going back to normal as well as her eyes. "I love you." Liam said, the girl finally smiling at his words.

"I love you." Cassie replied, Scott's heart dropping into his stomach at the two of them talking, knowing that he was about to ruin everything.



—

Cassie was resting on Liam's shoulder as the girl was extremely exhausted from the day she had had from her powers constantly going out of control and back in again, and Liam let her sleep, knowing that she needed the rest desperately, if she were to be able to defend herself against the dread doctors if needs be. It wasn't until Liam noticed a duffle bag sitting on the other side of the room with multiple chains in, did he realise that he had been lied to by his own alpha and friends, as well as Cassie. The girl woke up abruptly at the sound of the chains rattling in Liam's hands, looking over at where he was stood in worry, not knowing why he was holding them, until it hit her. Scott didn't want to kill the dread doctors, he wanted to catch them.
"What are you going to do with these?" Liam asked his alpha, the thought of betrayal not going through his own thoughts as he didn't believe Scott would do that to him or Cassie.

"Brought them just in case." Scott answered his beta, shrugging as he tried not to make a big deal out of it, trying to stop Liam from finding out the truth. Cassie had stood up at this point, heading towards Liam to get a look at the bag herself, and she couldn't understand why Scott would need a bag full of chains, it was like he was intending to capture the dread doctors, but how could he if he knew how dangerous it was? It's like he didn't care.

"In case of what?" Liam asked, growing more angry the more time went on, figuring out what Scott was planning, and his anger growing when he realised that the alpha was putting the love of his life in danger.

"In case we had a chance to catch one of them." Lydia spoke up for Scott, Cassie looking towards the girl in complete betrayal as she had once thought that Lydia was different. This wasn't supposed to be the plan, the plan was to keep the dread doctors away, not lure them straight towards them..

"If we can't make the school a fortress, then maybe we can make it a trap." Scott explained, hoping that Liam would understand where he was coming from and agree with him that this was the best possible plan of action. But the look on Liam's face said otherwise..

"They're coming for her." Liam told Scott, motioning towards Cassie, who looked like she was trying not to cry at the fact that Scott had lied to her, and maybe even Stiles, too. "Doesn't that mean she's the bait?" He asked, trying not to rip his alphas throat open for using his girlfriend like this and putting her in harms way; he thought that Scott was different..

Scott looked towards Cassie, who was already looking at him in hurt that he had used her like this, as Liam shoved the chains back into the bag. "No. No one's bait." Scott assured the two teenagers.

"We brought her here to protect her." Lydia assured Liam, noticing that the boy was growing angry at what Scott had been planning.

"And now she's bait." Liam stated, Cassie inching closer to her boyfriend, not wanting him to loose control.

"Am I bait, Scott?" Cassie asked her brother, her voice cracking as she spoke, making Scott feel that much more worse about this whole situation.

"No." Scott assured her, knowing that he wasn't going to put her in harms way, but he didn't know that he already had.. "But we can't be bodyguards to everyone every night." Scott added, knowing that they couldn't do this with everyone, they needed to figure out some sort of plan to stop this all from happening.

"This isn't just anyone, Scott. This is Cassie!" Liam argued, pointing to the girl standing besides him, "Why aren't we talking to her dad? Why aren't we doing something better than hiding in a school?" He asked.

"Because we still don't know anything about them or what they want, okay?" Scott answered, "They're winning. And we don't even know what the game is." He said.

"What if they come in here, and those things don't work? What if you have an asthma attack again? What are we gonna do?" Liam snapped, Scott saying that he didn't know. "This plan sucks!" He yelled.

"You got a better one?" Scott asked, "Kids are dying and she's next! So, somebody has to do something, somebody has to save everyone, so somebody's got to be the bait!" He yelled straight back, his voice raising to a level that Cassie had never heard come from him before. It broke her heart to hear him talking about her like she was just some 'kid', she thought she meant more to him than that, but she clearly didn't, he had made his decision clear.. When Scott realised what he had just said, he sighed, knowing he shouldn't have snapped, he couldn't even look towards Cassie as she had multiple tears streaming down her face, completely hurt by his words.

Liam took her hand, the girl calming down in an instant, "Scott. Promise me you'll do everything you can to save her." He told Scott, knowing that he was going to take away Cassie if he didn't agree with him right now.

A few seconds passed, before Scott nodded. "I'll do everything I can."

Scott lied. Liam and Cassie had been left alone in the locker room as the others had been picked off one by one trying to find the amplifier they needed in order to stop the frequencies; but each time one of them went off, none of them returned, and it was the two youngest teenagers left in the room, just waiting for their friends to come back. The dread doctors were coming for Cassie, and she knew it, "If I don't make it, will you tell Stiles I love him, and my dad, too?" She whispered, hearing the footsteps down the hall of the doctors coming straight for them.

Liam shook his head at her, "You're gonna make it, don't talk like that." He said, the footsteps coming closer and closer, then within seconds, they were here.
Little did they know, just how wrong Liam was..