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.*･｡. WAITING FOR SUPERMAN .*･｡.
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037.
RUN OUT.
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——

The three teenagers launched themselves at the door when it was shoved open, paranoid and ready to take down anyone that tried to get close to Jackson, only to all fall back at who they saw.

"Hey— no, no!" Stiles yelled out, raising his arms in surrender as he shuffled into the hut. "No! Just me— it's just me. Don't freak!"

Lois rolled her eyes and pushed a hand through her hair, the curls now frizzy and tangled. They knew that catching Jackson was going to be hard, but they hadn't really anticipated quite how much of the ketamine it would actually take for him to remain in as much of an unconscious state as they could get him. It seemed that no matter how much they gave him, he continued to wake up and hiss at them. On the sixth round of drugging him, he had stayed that way, so they had left him to it.

   Stiles spared a glance at his best friend and nodded to himself when he decided that she looked fine, not ripped into a million pieces like he had half expected. He didn't trust her life with any of the betas, and certainly not with the drugged up kanima in front of them. He was least trustworthy.

    "He okay?"

    "Well—" Isaac shrugged his shoulders, "—let's find out."

The beta strode over to Jackson, slicing the air with his claws and a smirk. He leant down to the lacrosse captain and went to slice his skin, only for a half-conscious Jackson to stop his arm mid-air, twisting the bones so far that Lois heard them crunch.

Isaac cried out in pain, the remaining three watching in shock as Jackson didn't even stir. The boy was brought down to his knees with the snapping of bones ringing through the air, echoing in the metal room. They all stepped back, horrified at the concept that he could be so drugged up on ketamine yet still be able to take down a werewolf in his sleep — even the two supernaturals were terrified of what he could do. It seemed that the kanima was only getting creepier by the second and Lois wasn't sure how they were going to defeat him if he refused to back down; if he refused to fail. She wasn't sure it was possible to take down a kanima, not anymore. Not after that.

"God—!" Stiles nearly fainted, his face pale as Isaac whimpered and stumbled away from Jackson, "Okay— no one does anything like that again, got it?"

"Wasn't planning on it," Lois breathed.

Isaac groaned as he held his wrist, already feeling it heal, "I thought the ketamine was supposed to put him out!"

"Yeah—" the son of the sheriff scoffed, glancing apprehensively at the boy they were holding hostage. Again. "Well, apparently this is all we're going to get, right now. So, let's just hope that whoever's controlling him decided to show up tonight."

"I'm here."

Lois' head snapped up, turning to look at Jackson.

"I'm right here with you."

It was a deeper voice, a haunting one, but it was most definitely coming from Jackson's mouth. The girl frowned and shot a glance at Stiles, her friend looking just as clueless and creeped out as she was. The twisted voice sent shivers down Lois' spine, and she found herself stepping closer to whoever was nearest. That person happened to be Isaac. He didn't move away.

After a round of pressurised looks coming from Lois and the two betas, Stiles sucked in a deep breath and took fives steps closer to Jackson. He slowly crouched down beside him, a foot away as to not let himself get attacked, and shakily fumbled with the zip of his jacket.

"Jackson?" He spoke, "Is that you?"

"Us." The voice corrected, shaking its head, "We're all here."

Stiles nodded his head as though understood, "Are you the one killing people?"

"We are the ones killing murderers."

"So, all the people you've killed so far—" Stiles started to ask, only to be cut off by the voice. Every time she spoke, Lois' skin jumped upon her bones.

"Deserved it."

He hummed, feeling a little more confident now that they knew their original theory had been right, and looked the boys up and down , "See... we got a little rule book that says you only go after murderers."

"Anything can break if enough pressure's applied." Jackson's body spoke.

Somehow, that didn't make Lois feel better at all. In fact, it made her nose wrinkle in dissatisfaction.

"Alright—" Stiles nodded his head, almost beckoning for the voice of his master to continue. To give them a clue as to who they were, why they were hiding behind this weapon — the weapon of a sixteen year old boy, who hadn't even been able to change after getting the bite. They had taken advantage of that, and it was cruel. "So, the people you're killing are all murderers, then?"

"All." It spoke, "Each. Every one."

The four teenagers furrowed their brows, glancing between one another in confusion. With what they had learnt about those who had been murderer thus far, they hadn't been known for killing anyone. His words didn't make sense — unless, this master knew something that they didn't.

"Well, who did they murder?" Stiles asked, closed this time.

"Me."

Stiles gaped, "Wait— what? What do you mean?"

"They murdered me!"

He scrambled back up and away from Jackson when his body started to shake, aggression filling up the room. Stiles pushed himself towards the two betas for protection while Lois stood still, unable to comprehend what they had just been told.

The master was controlling the kanima, creating these murders, because the murdered had killed them. How was that possible?

She didn't understand how someone who claimed to have been murdered could have been killing people, at least not when it came down to fact and to reality. But, over these last few months, the group of teenagers had learnt that what they thought had been reality wasn't actually reality. There was more to it, much more to it than humans and animals. They had learnt that shapeshifters existed, that hunters existed — the supernatural existed. Nothing was as black and white as they had always thought, nothing was simple anymore. Death wasn't just death, murder wasn't simply murder. Now, it wasn't just humans killing humans, there were so many other beings involved.

"They murdered me!"

A low growl brought Lois out of her daze and she hedged back, not knowing where to possibly run if he was to leap up and lunge at her. It was plausible, at this point. Whoever this was, he seemed pretty adamant that he was going to kill everyone who had killed him, and she really didn't feel like dying for getting in his way.

"Okay, alright—" Stiles panicked, shaking his hand around for someone to react, "More ketamine! The man needs ketamine, come on—!"

Isaac pursed his lips tightly, looking down at the glass bottle that was now empty, "We don't have any more..."

The son of the sheriff slowly turned his head to look at them, his mouth agape. Lois cringed and stepped back, not wanting to get in the way of the scuffle that might occur. Stiles already didn't like the betas, particularly Isaac, and Jackson was slowly starting to wake up — so, on top of all of that, this was only going to make him more agitated.

"You used the whole bottle?"

"Have you ever tried knocking out a kanima?" Lois shot back, eyes wide with worry. There were more important things to be dealt with right now, than the fact that they had run out of the one thing that had half-sedated him, "It's not that easy, Stiles!"

He cursed to himself a plethora of times and rubbed a hand over his face. Scott hadn't answered his previous calls when he had updated him on the mountain ash, hence why he had left Luna by his jeep to wait for the boy, so that was one option down. Stiles tried to figure out a different game plan, something that could help them keep him restrained without needing Scott's assistance, but when Jackson's eyelids shot open and the eyes of the kanima were beneath them, there was only one thing left for the four teenagers to do: panic and run for the hills.

"Everybody out!" Stiles shouted, shoving open the door and ushering them all with his hands, "Out!"

Isaac paled when Jackson stood up, "Go! Go, go!"

Lois did as she was told and shot out of the metal hut, her breathing ragged as they all threw themselves against the door in hopes of trapping him inside.

"Okay, find something we can used to hold the door—!"

The brunette shrieked over Stiles' instructions when the kanima shot out of the side of the small building, going through the metal without even a flinch. She quickly covered the sides of her head and moved towards her best friend in case it tried to take them down, breathing a sigh of relief when it vanished into the dark.

Their relief dissipated and was replaced with more stress, however, when they really where it had headed towards.

Back towards the party.

"Crap."

• • •

"Where's Jackson?" Luna demanded when Stiles and Lois threw themselves out of the party, panting heavily.

Stiles immediately moved towards his girlfriend, whom just so happened to be accompanied by Derek Hale, while Lois leant against the side of the building to try and catch her breath.

Alongside Erica and Isaac, they had searched the entire party with hopes of finding Jackson before he found another victim, but they had been unlucky. It was as though he had simply vanished into thin air, disappeared never to be seen again. Lois' gut twisted. Their original plan had failed, quite horrifically, but she had hope that Stiles' pixie dust barrier would step-up tonthe plate and work out. As long as they could trap the kanima and it's master inside, then they could work with it.

"Hey, um—" Stiles attempted to stutter out an excuse, wanting to remain calm so that his girlfriend didn't panic and so Derek wouldn't feel the need to punch him in the face, "So, we kind of lost Jackson inside, but it's—"

Isaac and Erica appeared from inside the club, both slowing down when they realised that something was up. They made their way to the like of mountain ash and looked down at it sceptically, unable to get past and to their alpha. The betas sent one another cautious looks — they were stuck. And if Jackson and his master were still trapped inside, that meant that they were trapped inside with them.

"Oh my god—!" Stiles cried, "It's working! Oh, this is—"

"You actually did something?" Lois laughed a bit, in disbelief that his magic pixie dust seemed to work.

Stiles nodded enthusiastically, "I did something!"

Lois knelt down beside Erica and Isaac, her eyes looking down at the line intently. She was impressed that Deaton's weird and magic powder had gone to plan, and proud that Stiles had been the one to make it work. It warmed her heart and made her smile so big, knowing that he felt useful, for once.

Like a child that was tempted to touch everything in a candy store, she was incredibly tempted to reach out a hand and scrape a line through the mountain ash with her finger. But she didn't. Lois refrained herself from a childish temptation, having known that this was their last shot. She knew that if they disrupted the barrier even in the slightest of ways, that they would be regretting it the next morning. To stop the kanima, they needed to stop its master and to stop its master, they needed to catch the kanima. And to do either of the above, meant that they had to keep the mountain ash in fact for as long as they possibly could.

Derek glanced at Lois while she wasn't looking, finding that her door had stopped an inch before the line. He frowned deeply. She hadn't stepped over the barrier yet.

"This might work," Luna breathed, clapping her hands in excitement. All three humans were rejoicing about the barrier working, all of their fingers and toes crossed, hoping that it would be enough to hold back the kanima. "This might work!"

While the non-supernatural creatures thought about all of the ways that they would be able to stop the kanima now, all of the supernatural creatures ears perked up. Lois had noticed, furrowing her brows as she glanced towards Erica and Isaac on her left, who appeared just as confused as she was. Derek was the only one that recognised the sound they had heard, and his heart began sinking down to his stomach.

"Scott?"

Stiles turned to look at him, "What?"

"Break it." Derek demanded, cursing himself for needing to stop the plan before it had truly started. He had to.

"What?" The hyperactive boy gaped at him, "No way!"

    "Scott's dying!" The alpha told him, his teeth grit and his claws ready to come out. All three humans watched him, eyes wide and mouths open, not knowing how he would have known that.

    "Okay— what?" Lois breathed, standing up from her kneeling position and narrowing her eyes at the werewolf. He mirrored the stare and clenched his fists, the bone in his jaw feathering. Even though Derek was helping them now, and they were all on the same team, it didn't mean that she trusted him any more than she used to, "How do you know that?"

   He growled, "Oh, my— I just know!"

   When he didn't back down, Lois' defence crumbled. He may have been an untrustworthy, impulsive asshole, and he had lied to them before, but this seemed different. She didn't know how she knew, but deep down, she knew that he was telling the truth.

    "Break it!" Derek turned back to Stiles, "Now!"

    "But—!"

    "Just break it, Stiles!" Lois cried out, terrifying of all the things that could have been happening to their best friend in that very moment.

   His eyes flickered over to the brunette he had known his whole life and he groaned, not wanting to destroy his hard work but knowing that he had to. For Scott.

   Leaning down, Stiles waved his hand over the line of mountain ash and watched it float away in the air while Derek shot over the line in hopes of finding Scott. He pouted down at the loss of his efforts and grumbled a few things, but he knew that it was for good reason. If Scott had died because of their barrier, he never would have forgiven himself.

But Lois didn't fail to noticed the stare that Derek gave her. It was cold and unfriendly, two things that summed up the man so well yet he had never looked at her like that before. Never in that way. She noticed it, but she said nothing.

They were all stressed, lately.

Maybe that was it.

——

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