𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟗

"𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢 "

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╰┈˚ · ° .  AFTER FOLLOWING THE LEAD TO EICHEN HOUSE  that brought us nowhere, we were surprised by the news of Melissa and Rafel McCall founding Stiles. He had wandered into the woods while sleepwalking to Malia's old coyote's den, and he had been asleep for the entirety of the night, even when he had called us.

The following day, as Stiles slept monitorized at the hospital, the rest of us, even with little sleep, still had to go to school.

Allison, during the eventful night, had stayed asleep, until both Isaac and Sebastian had woken her up. The weird thing though, were the several messages left in her voicemail. All the same and all in Japanese.

Remembering our new history teacher of Japanese origin, that morning before classes, Sebastian, Allison and I reached out to him searching for his help in translating it.

"You're right. It's Japanese." Professor Yukimura said as he listened to one of the messages. "Who left this on your phone?"

"I don't know. All of the messages are the same and they all say blocked id." Allison told him.

"Can you translate it?" Sebastian asked the man.

"Mostly. The man speaking is giving instructions actually. The first line is, 'all evacuees are required to stay at least 10 feet back from outside fences.' "

"What does that mean?" I asked, confused. "What fences?"

"The fences surrounding a Japanese internment camp during World War II. After Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans were rounded up and put in camps. This man is reading instructions to prisoners upon their arrival." The teacher explained, stopping the voicemail from continuing playing.

"Well, where does something like this come from?" Allison asked him.

"I have no idea. Because it's fake. It mentions the name of the internment camp as 'Oak Creek.' There was no internment camp named Oak Creek in California."

"So this is fake?" I questioned trying to understand, "Why would they send her a fake message?"

"I don't know." The man shrugged his shoulders, and then the bell rang signaling the beginning of the first period.

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╰┈˚ · ° .  Things were going from bad to worse. With the history of illness of Claudia Stilinski, the recent actions of Stiles were like an alarm. The symptoms were too similar to the one his mother had shown.

The Sheriff was currently talking with the doctor, Melissa McCall was there too, and with Stiles there was Scott.

As they talked before the MRI, I stayed outside, listening to them with my grandmother sitting next to me.

This was the exact reason why I didn't want to let anyone in. Loss, grief, the anger that comes from all of this... I had experienced too much already in my life, I had no need of others.

"He is not gone yet, sweetheart." grams said. She took my hand between her own. Her familiar touch, though, did nothing to calm my racing heart.

"We cannot cure something like this." I said taking my hand back.

"Maybe we can't." I could hear the soft smile in her voice, but I didn't dare to look away from the white wall before me. "Someone else though..."

"Stiles," The doctor called the teen. It was easy enough to listen with my heightened hearing. "Just to warn you, you're going to hear a lot of noise during the MRI. It's due to pulses of electricity going through metal coils inside the machine. Uh, if you want we can get you earplugs or headphones."

"Oh, no, no, I don't need anything." He replied.

"Hey, we're just on the other side of that window. Okay?"

"Okay." Stiles answered his father. A second passed before I could hear the door closing letting me know that the doctor, the sheriff and the nurse had left Stiles and Scott alone. "Is she outside?"

The question left me more tense as I waited for Scott's reply, but it didn't come with words as moments after the door of the room at my back was opened. Scott nodded his head motioning for me to enter before walking once again inside.

"Go." Whispered my grandmother offering one of her comforting smiles.

I let out a breath, already regretting my decision to enter when I could literally feel the tick and tense air inside the room.

Stiles was dressed in a blue hospital gown, sitting on the machinery while Scott, heartbroken, couldn't even move his eyes away from the floor as he played with his hands trying to distract himself.

"You know what they're looking for?" Stiles asked after a second of silence.

"What your mother had, right?" I replied with my own question as I kept my gaze anywhere but on him.

"It's called frontotemporal dementia." Areas of your brain start to shrink. It's the only form of dementia that can hit teenagers." The Stilinski boy let out a sigh, "And there's no cure."

His words hit much harder than I expected that I had to clench my jaw to not let the tears fall as my eyes watered. But Scott, he let his own trail down his cheek before he was quick to brush it away.

"Stiles, if you have it, we'll do something. I'll do something."

The bite. It could cure him or kill him.

The understandment passed between the two best friends and on the verge of tears they embraced each other. After a moment, though, Stiles turned towards me, opening his other arm to let me join the hug.

"Come here." he said with teary eyes.

For a second I found myself frozen in my spot. It was hard, harder than I cared to admit to finally let go.

Tears stained my cheeks as I felt his arm wrap around me followed by Scott's. This was what I hated about caring, that somehow, in some way, you get hurt. And in that moment I couldn't say if it was worth it as I felt my heart squeeze in my chest and the burn in my eyes as tears continued to fall.

───── ⋆⋅⋆｡ ﾟ☽𖦹☾ ﾟ｡⋆⋅⋆ ─────

╰┈˚ · ° .  "I'm going outside, I need some air." I said to Scott, my grandmother— who was waiting with Derek— once we stepped into the hallway.

I walked away without waiting for any reply, seeking peace in the only thing that I knew would never leave me. Nature.

The hospital was surrounded on three sides by the woods, and at that moment, I couldn't be more grateful for it.

I didn't venture too deep, just enough to see the light of the building being muffled by the trees. I needed to ground myself.

The earth was humid from the winter air as I sat down, it was almost completely dark but that did nothing but help me.

Hex slithered out from her Domus. Her forked tongue tasting the air with a hiss. "I don't like this energy." She said,

"I was crying." I told with closed eyes.

"No, Elizabeth." The hiss that she let out contained a hint of a scoff that made my eyes roll. "I know what I'm feeling. This is not because of your crying session. This is chaos, this is death."

"Alec might have arrived then." My chuckle was cut short by the bite on my hand. Fortunately, her being my familiar meant that her venom did not affect me, but it still stung since her fangs had pierced through my skin. "What the fuck, Hex!"

"Listen to me, witch." Her tone could even match Alec with the distaste that she had said the word with. "You have to go back. Something is wrong. Really, wrong."

"What are you talking about?"

"GO!" She shouted before disappearing in a puff of purple smoke inside her Domus.

The first scream pierced through the air like a siren. Wide eyed, I sprinted back towards the hospital. In front of the building, a huge puddle of water was forming quickly, but the dangerous part was the electric cave that had fallen into it, creating a death trap.

"No!" My head snapped towards the familiar voice of Isaac, the boy shoving his boyfriend away from the deadly water.

I turned just in time to see his feet touching the water, electricity coursing through his body making him convulse until he fell down face first into the water. But what was worse, was the way Alec had grasped for the beta's hand trying to keep him out of it only for him to be caught in it too.

It happened almost in slow motion, or for my heart at least it did. His eyes rolled to the back of his head as a strangled cry fell from his lips only to be silenced once he fell limp, body still jolting from the electricity.

No, no, no, no. This wasn't happening.

I ran as fast as I could around the puddle of water reaching Allison who was trying really hard to restrain Sebastian. The boy was red in the face as tears streamed down his face with sobs rocking his body. He clawed at the girl's hands, trying to be free from her hold.

"Seb, stop! You are only going to hurt yourself!" Allison shouted to the hysteric boy.

"It's my fault." he sobbed.

"Don't Elle! You are just going to get yourself hurt too."

"He is dying, Allison!" I said. I tuned out her screams as I stepped into the water. The surprise was that there was no electricity anymore. My eyes snapped to the Japanese girl that stood further away. Her eyes glowing bright orange as she held in her hands the electric wire stopping it from flowing into the water.

I ran towards Alec kneeling next to him, at the same time Derek went for Isaac.

"Alec! Alec, wake up!" But his heartbeat was far too slow. "No, please. Alec please, don't leave me."

My hand grabbed his, and the veins in my arms darkened to black as I took his pain. There was too much of it. And still, with a cry suppressed through my lips I continued to absorb it until I saw that his lashes fluttered and his eyes half opened.

But the relief was momentaneous as they closed once again leaving me with a hole in my heart that only worsened with time, as two days later, he was still covered in burns and his eyes continued to stay closed.

───── ⋆⋅⋆｡ ﾟ☽𖦹☾ ﾟ｡⋆⋅⋆ ─────

╰┈˚ · ° .  Two chairs away slumped in their seats half asleep, there were Allison and Lydia. The two girls had stayed with both Sebastian and I for most part of the two days as we stayed right outside the room in the ICU.

Two days and I had gotten not even a wink of sleep. Two days of raging against every nurse and doctor that I saw to let me inside the room to see my boyfriend, and still nothing. The hours passed, dragging every second making it feel more like two years then two days. The only consolation that I had was that I could hear Alec's heartbeat through the walls alongside Isaac's.

Sebastian stayed eyes looked on the door, his bags dark and prominent beneath his red-rimmed eyes. His legs bounced up and down as he drank his third cup of coffee since midnight. The trashcan that he dragged next to his chair was filled with empty wrappers of candy, chocolate bars and chips. Sebastian Miller was what we could call an anxious eater. He had probably eaten his own weight in snacks and sweets. He had emptied the vending machine on the floor, the few remaining sweets on the chair next to him.

The elevator's door opened, Scott and Melissa McCall walked towards us. The girls, Allison and Lydia, sit upright in their half awake state as they recognize the two, sending the mother-son duo strained smiles.

"Have you been here all night?" The alpha asked.

"More so for the last two days." Sebastian replied with a bitter snort.

"Yeah, they won't let us see them because we are not family." Allison added letting out a tired sigh.

"We told them that they don't have any, and still, they would not let us enter." Sebastian's anger was palpable in the air as he gritted through his teeth the words, sending harsh glare further down the hallways where doctors probably were.

"What about Alec? Doesn't he-"

"His emergency contact is his brother. And he is not answering." I said as I passed my hands over my face.

"I'm surprised that you didn't forcefully enter." Scott said, trying to lift the spirit.

"They said that the next time I ask about entering, I will be escorted with force out of the building and denied access for the rest of my life." I scoffed.

"Well, they got us." Melissa McCall said, lips titles into the beginning of a smile. "And I've got a key card." The nurse swapped the card across the scanner, the light turning green as the doors opened. "Be quick."

I jumped from my seat, running into the room until I was face to face with Alec. And my feet froze so my heart skipped a beat. He was covered in blisters and burns, his eyes were closed but I could see the tension across his face. He was in pain.

"Come on." Scott whispered, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"I thought they would be healing by now." Sebastian said with a trembling voice, anxiety rising alongside his fear. "Why are they not healing yet?"

"Because they are in too much pain. They can't heal." I replied after swallowing the lump in my throat. The sob that I kept from falling from my lips as I grabbed his hand to take a bit of his pain threatened to break me.

"It won't heal him, but it helps with the pain." Scott said probably doing the same thing that I did with Alec to Isaac.

"Did Stiles really do this?" Allison asked.

"It wasn't him." I said. "Whatever's controlling him did it. Whatever's inside him. The dark Kitsune." I said ignoring the pack bond that throbbing on my arm with the feeling of wrongness. I felt responsible. If I had taken more time to learn the bond or acknowledge it more, we could've done something way before everything fell apart.

"The Nogitsune." Lydia nodded her head. She had walked near me, her hand grabbing my free one to comfort me. It didn't do much, but it was better than nothing.

"Well, then how do we get whatever's inside of him the hell out of him?" Sebastian asked.

"I'm working on it."

"Time's up." Melissa said, walking into the room.

Fear coursed through my veins. No, no, no. I couldn't leave him, not now. I needed to help him, them. I couldn't leave already.

"I can't- I can't leave him." I shook my hand, tightening the hold on his hand. "Please."

"You don't have to." The voice of my grandmother came from the door.

But next to her, there was someone that I had not seen in over seven years.

Francesco Di Luna, Alec's brother.

"Hello Elizabeth. It's been a long time." The man said with a thick Italian accent. "You've grown up."

Francesco had once been Oliver's– my eldest brother— best friend. And still, he had never looked back after the fire that took his life. They were almost like brothers and he all but forgot about him.

"It's been seven years, Francesco." I scoffed, turning my gaze towards my friends.. "This is Francesco Di Luna, Alec's brother." I told the others.

"We have to go. Text us if you need anything and if anything changes with them."

Sebastian had to be almost dragged away from Scott, but as the four other teenagers left the room, a thick and awkwards tension filled the room.

"It seems that many things have changed. Like you and my brother. What is going on between you two?" The older Di Luna said as he walked to stand at the end of his brother's hospital bed.

"You would know if you replied to any of his calls or messages." I said bitterly.

Francesco Di Luna might have been an alpha for the rest of his family, but the animosity with his brother after their mother's death and father's abandonment had created a wedge in their relationship. As much as Alec hated to admit it, it hurt him.

"Good to know that at least you still have your sharp tongue." He chuckled.

I rolled my eyes taking the chair that my grandmother had dragged in, positioned near Alec's bed so I could continue to stay near him.

"Did you bring the paste?" I asked my grandmother, ignoring the man.

"Yes, the tonic too." She replied with a tight lipped smile while giving me the tote bag with various ingredients in it.

"Are you really going to do spells on him?" Francesco scoffed, glaring through his dark lashes at me and my grandmother.

"I'll stay outside. I'll send a warning if someone is going to come in." Grams Rosalie said, leaving the room as if her ass was on fire.

I sighed with frustration, typical judgemental shadow wolves. I mean they are cursed from our magic but still...

"They are things that will help them heal faster. Alec is stronger than Isaac, he will heal faster but this will help boost their healings." I said as I placed a couple of candles throughout the room, lightening them up with a snap of my fingers to channel their flames.

"Do you really think that Alec will be okay with it? With you using your magic on him?" He asked as if he couldn't even believe that his brother could ever do it.

"Yes." I said more than convinced that that was the truth.

"Sure." he mumbled under my breath.

I first gave the tonics to both before I passed to the paste. I used it first on Isaac's arms, the place where he had received the majority of the burns before passing to Alec.

It was a much more precise job for him. Not that I didn't care for Isaac but he was my Alec.

Francesco remained silent as I worked, but his eyes burned to the side of my face with the intensity of his stare.

They had this in common. Him and Alec. The intensity behind their emotion, behind their every movement.

"You love him." His voice took me by surprise that I almost jolted as I applied the greenish paste along the curve of my boyfriend's jaw.

"And?" I said continuing my actions.

"Does he know?" he asked.

He was in for a surprise.

I couldn't help but snort out loud at his question. "He does."

"Okay and?"

"And what?"

He rolled his eyes, clenching his hands on the plastic end of the table. "And what did he say?" he asked before raising an amused eyebrow. "Did he laugh?"

I laughed at his words. "You can ask him." I said as a smile curled my lips.

"Why do I smell like a fucking garden?" Alec's voice was like a soothing balm for my bleeding heart.

"Because your dumb ass got fried alongside Isaac's." I said through a snort.

"Hello, little witch." His smirk was everything that I wanted to see. Even if with eyes still half closed, mind probably still fogged as his healing fastened. "You really can't keep your hands off of me, can you?" He tried to wiggle his eyebrows only to wince at the movement.

"Don't move, you are still healing."I said, turning serious. My forehead furrowed and my smile fell flat. "You scared me half to death."

"I'm sorry, Amore." He wrapped his still half burned fingers around mine. [Love.]

"What the fuck is happening." Francesco's voice burst through.

"Francesco?" Alec asked, eyes snapping towards his brother.

"Alessandro." The older Di Luna gave his brother a tight lipped smile with a slight nod.

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

"What do you think?"

Alec scoffed at his brother's reply, tightening his hold on me. "You can go." he said before turning towards me. "You called my brother?"

"He is your emergency contact, actually. I was stuck outside this room for two days before he came today."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh." I scoffed, applying the last bit of paste.

Silence stretched for a few awkwards moments before Francesco cleared his voice with a cough. "So you two are...?"

"Really?" Alec asked in a deadpan tone.

"Yeah?"

"Yes. We are together."

Francesco's eyes widened comically. "Oh." he said. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before saying. "Oh gods, how is this town still standing?"

The snort that fell from my lips was completely of amusement. "We are not that bad."

Francesco scoffed, "When you were ten Alec used his shadows to trap you down in the cellar, and you for revenge spelled the earth to eat him until only his head was out of the ground, and you left him there for hours. And that is only one thing. We had to literally have you sit at the extremities of the table at dinner because you would literally bite your heads off."

"Hey! He surrounded me in his shadows and I could not see anything for hours too."

"I breathed more earth than oxygen for hours!" Alec glared at me as he said that.

"Well, that was your own fault, wasn't it?"

"Apparently this did not change either." Francesco laughed. "You are together and you still are at each other's throats."

"Well, it would be boring otherwise." Alec tried to shrug only to wince again.

"Glad to know that I'm boring to you." I scoffed at my boyfriend with a glare. "And stop moving, for fuck sakes. You are still healing." I exhaled a breath before I brushed my fingers through his hair, "Sleep." I said to my boyfriend. "You'll heal faster."

"Wait, how is Isaac?" he asked, his eyes already closing with the bit of magic that I let out to facilitate the action.

"He is going to be fine but his healing is much slower than yours. I'll try to boost it once you are asleep."

"Okay." he whispered. "I love you."

"I love you too Alec."

"I guess Oliver was right." A nostalgic smile curled upon the older man's lips that I took notice only when I snapped my head towards him after hearing my brother's name on his lips.

"What about my brother?" I asked with a bite in my tone.

"He said that you would end up together one day. We had a bet going on actually. He won since you are not 18 yet."

"You betted on us?" I asked.

"He said that you would get together before turning 18, I said after. He won." He gave us a sincere smile, but sadness coated his eyes. "He would be happy about it. I'm happy for you." Francesco lowered his tone then, "I know that you are angry with me." he said.

"I am." I admitted.

"He was my best friend. He was my brother." Francesco admitted, "A part of me died with him that day."

I remember clearly how even with the distance between them, I had never seen such pure friendship. Our mothers used to joke and say that they were platonically soulmates.

Sadness and grief pierced my heart. It would never stop hurting. Losing Oliver and Jordan, my mother and father, the rest of my family... nothing could hurt as much as that. But when I saw Alec fall down into the electrified water, his heartbeat slowing each second that passed, I thought that my heart was going to stop alongside his. And still though, I couldn't help but think that loving him could never be something that I could ever regret.

He was my home.

And just like the others, we were a pack. We were a family.

I could never regret loving any of them.

"I know that you can understand that. Having someone that close that they feel like a part of you. But I honestly hope that you will never understand what it feels like losing them."

The clash of swords.

✎

˗ˏˋ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ˊˎ˗

Hello everyone!!

This was a big fucking chapter, oh my god!

Francesco Di Luna everyone!

While I was writing this chapter I had no idea that this was going to be the final thing, but I love it. So many emotions in the last couple of chapters.

It took me a bit of time to write this but it was worth it in my opinion.

Let me know your thoughts!

Anyways, thank you for reading this chapter, I'll see you on Thursday!

˚ · ° . 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 . ° · ˚

𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞!

– 𝐋𝐨𝐥𝐚 ☾