Four

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"If Jackson doesn't know what he's doing, then he probably doesn't know that someone's controlling him," Allison spoke into her phone with Scott and Stiles on the other end.

"Or he doesn't remember."

"What if it's the same kind of thing that happened with Lydia when she took off from the hospital?"

"A fugue state?"

"He'd have to forget everything. The murder. Getting rid of the blood."

"Yeah, he had help with one thing...the video. And someone else helped him forget that."

"The one Danny helped him with?" Jo clarified, doing her best to keep up with her limited information.

"Yeah."

"Whoever's controlling him."

"Are you sure Jackson has no clue about any of this?" Jo cracked her fingers.

"He thinks he's still becoming a werewolf and that being with Lydia somehow delayed the whole thing."

"So do we try and convince him he's not?"

"If it helps us find out who's controlling him, then yeah."

"Do you think he'll talk to us after what we did?" Allison asked, glancing lightly at Jo.

"Yeah, it's us. He'll talk to us. Right?"

  Allison shuffled past the security cameras with Jo following behind her, sliding to the opening in the row of bookshelves. She slid her tablet past the space between shelved books in to the hands of Scott who stood on the other side.

"It's everything Lydia can translate...and trust me, she was very confused."

"Yeah," he scrolled through the pages of supernatural. "What'd you tell her?"

"That we were part of an online gaming community that battles mythical creatures," she desperately joked.

"I am part of an online gaming community that battles mythical creatures," Stiles replied, his face half confused and half offended.

Allison's mumbling broke the silence. "O-oh. Great."

Jo giggled before giving Stiles an approving nod who kept the same face but his attention was momentarily on her.

"Okay, does it say how to find out who's controlling him?" Scott got to the point.

"Not really. But Stiles was right about the murderers."

"Yes!" Stiles let out a silent cheer.

"It calls the kanima a weapon of vengeance. There's a story in there about this South American priest who uses the kanima to execute murderers in his village."

"All right, see? So maybe it's not all that bad," Stiles reasoned with a shrug.

"Until the bond grew strong enough that it killed whoever he wanted it to," Allison finished.

"All bad, all very, very bad," Stiles changed his opinion.

"Here's the thing, though. The kanima's actually supposed to be a werewolf."

"But it can't be-" Allison paused, watching the passing student leave the area.

Scott zoomed in and read from the tablet to finish her thought. "Until it resolves that in its past which manifested it."

"Okay, if that means that Jackson could use a few thousand hours of therapy, I could've told you that myself.

"What if...it has something to do with his parents? His real parents."

"Yeah, does anybody actually know what happened to them?" Scott looked at Stiles.

"Lydia might."

"Lydia," Stiles and Jo suggested in unison.

"What if she doesn't know anything?"

"Well, he doesn't have a restraining order against me, so...I'll talk to him myself," Allison slid the book she aimlessly flipped through to ease suspicion back in its spot.

"Okay, what do I do?"

"You have a make up exam, remember?"

Scott watched Allison for a moment before turning to Stiles who tightened his lips in agreement.

Allison grabbed his hand. "Promise me."

"If he does anything, you run the other way."

"I can take care of myself," she spoke quietly.

"Allison, if you get hurt while I'm busy with some stupid test, someone's going to need to take care of me...If he does anything."

"Like?" She shook her head.

"Anything...weird or bizarre...anything-"

Stiles pushed his head through the gap in the shelf. "Anything evil!" Allison pushed him back with her palm. He stumbled with his book and glanced around suspiciously. "Ah-ow!"

"All done?"

  Jo looked up from her make up test from the previous day, eyes fixated on her teacher for a moment before nodding. "Yeah. I'm done."

"I'll take that for you," her geometry teacher made his way over to her, grabbing the bubble sheet from her shaky hands with a smile. "Your grade will be in by the morning."

  She watched as he walked back over to his desk and threw his bag over his shoulder with a sigh. "The door's locked. Just make sure you pull it shut on your way out."

  Jo let out a breath. The empty room calmed her. No Kanima. No dad. No werewolves. No Issac.

"Jo."

The voice startled her out of her seat. It was a voice she knew well. Sometimes she woke up to it, fell asleep to it, heard it in her ear when she cried. Though recently she could only associate it with the negative; the scary, the things that made her jump from her seat.

"Issac," her lips trembled lightly.

"You weren't in school Friday," he watched her intently, his words accusing like.

"My, uh, my dad...is in town..." her eyes fell to the floor but raised again at his concerned voice.

"Are you all right?" He watched her carefully, she couldn't tell if it were out of kindness or to scan her for cracks, waiting for her to crack, looking for information.

Are you? was her original response, but she decided to go with the standard. "Yeah...yeah I guess."

"Are you going to the rave on Friday?"

"I-uh-I-don't know."

"Jo...why-"

"Listen, I got to go," Jo chuckled nervously, shoving her pencils in her backpack and stepping past Issac with her bag on her shoulder. "Free periods only last so long."

"Jo!" His voice raised as he followed her down the empty hall.

Turning the corner, Jo let out a puff of air, her eyes widening at Stiles who stood outside the locker room with a blonde.

"Oh, thank god. I-" Jo's voice trailed off, a puddle of water seeping through her tennis shoes, her eyes landing on the face of the blonde. Erica.

Their eyes fell to the locker room door, water seeping out into the halls. The puddle was quickly replaced by a body, the metal door slamming into the wall as Jackson rammed himself out and onto Scott. Before Jackson could throw another punch, Erica wrapped her arms around the agitated lacrosse player and struggled to pull him off. Stiles worked at holding Scott down, who was pulling himself off the floor.

Jo raced over to Stiles to help hold his friend back, Erica having a good grip on Jackson by the the time Mr. Harris made it to the scene.

"What the hell is going on?" He bellowed, stepping in the middle of the already calming fight. "Hey! Enough! Enough!"

The hall fell silent, other than the crowd whispering to one another.

"What do you idiots think you're doing? Jackson! Calm down! Mr. McCall, you wanna explain yourself? Stilinski? Josephine!"

Jo watched him with furrowed brows and a scrunched nose.

"You and you," he pointed to Jackson and Scott. "Actually, all of you. Detention, 3:00." His gaze landed on the group, now consisting of Allison, who was in the locker room, and a random student that happened to be apart of Harris' power trip.

  The group of seven trotted into the library, passing a power hungry Mr. Harris as they found their seats. Jo took the seat across from Allison, since Erica had already sat down at the other table, that was her most comfortable option.

  Jo let out a shaky breath as a bag landed at her feet and a voice broke the previous silence. "Oh-we can't be in detention together. I have a restraining order against these tools." She casually glanced behind her, her eyes landing on Scott and Stiles, and then back on Jackson who was now sat beside her.

"All of these tools?" Mr. Harris raised an eyebrow.

"No, just us tools," Stiles clarified, which would have earned a giggle from Jo, but she was too nervous.

"Fine, you two, over there," Mr. Harris pointed to Scott and Stiles' alternative seats, pulling them from Erica's table.

"Kanima." The word made Jo's shoulders tense. Though she wasn't extremely familiar with it, she was familiar enough. She knew what it was, she knew who it was. She was sitting right next to him. So why would the random student sitting across from her be muttering the word to himself as if it were some riddle he needed to solve.

  Jo raised her head, her eyes falling on Allison who had heard it too, and was watching his tablet worriedly.

"Ah," Jackson held his hand to his head, silently wincing but Jo could notice his agony. "Ow." He pulled  himself out of his seat with his bag in his hand."

"You okay?" The kid in front of him asked, but was ignored.

"I have to go to the bathroom," Jackson pushed his chair out of the way and headed for the library door.

"Are you all right?" Mr. Harris checked. "Hey, you don't look so good."

"I just need to get some water."

"No one leaves their seats," Harris spoke sternly, assuming that would make a difference, but as soon as the door shut behind him, Scott and Stiles found a new spot beside Erica.

  Jo sighed, relaxing at Jackson's absence. She pulled out her economics make up work, along with a mechanical pencil.

"Scott McCall, please report to the principal's office."

  The room was quiet, no whispering, no sound of keys tapping from Erica's computer, just silence as Scott glanced lightly at his friends before leaving the room.

  Harris didn't even bother to reprimand Stiles for not being in the correct seat when he got back to the library. He was more focused on Jackson and his well-being.

  Jackson made his way back to his seat beside Jo, his breath heavy. She couldn't tell if it was sweat or water droplets covering his face, but she figured there were a few tears mixed in there somewhere. Other than whispers, there were no more words said until Mr. Harris started packing his things.

  Jo, along with the others, slowly starting to gather their belongings, earning a light chuckle from their teacher. "Oh, no. I'm sorry. Oh, yes. I'm leaving. But none of you are. You may go when you're done with the re-shelving." He tapped on the carts of returned library books. "Enjoy the rest of your evening."

  With a few eye rolls and grunts, they eventually got to work, pairing off to make their extra school time worth their while and socialize a bit.

"Jackson's birthday is the fifteenth?" Jo repeated for clarification.

"Yeah. His mom died the fourteenth. It means he was born after his mom died...by C-section. They had to pull him out of her dead body."

"Car accident, you said?" Stiles nodded.

"So was it an accident or not?" Allison's voice faded.

  Stiles clicked his tongue. "The word all over the report is 'inconclusive'."

"Then his parents could have been murdered?"

  Stiles shrugged. "Well if they were, it falls in line with the Kanima myth. You know? It seeks out and kills murderers."

"But for Jackson? Or for whoever's controlling him?"

"We have to talk to him," Scott exasperated, stepping into the next aisle.

"He's not gonna'-" Allison sighed as Scott disappeared into the next row of books.

"Why would-"

  Jo couldn't finish her thought, the crash was too loud. At this point if you asked her, she wouldn't be able to remember what it was. Sparks and debris from the ceiling tiles and lights scattered the air, falling at their feet along with the books they had just shelved.

"Erica!"

  A roar bounced off the library walls, sending shivers down Jo's shaky spine. Another crash sent her stumbling to the floor, a foreign arm wrapped protectively around her head. Jo let out a yelp, half supporting herself on the shaking bookshelves as she turned to Stiles who pulled his arm off of her and Allison.

  She gave him a nervous nod of appreciation before their attention was needed elsewhere. With a hand on his back, Scott made his way over to the crouching group, putting himself in front of the three to shield them from the body that unhurriedly made its way to the nearby chalkboard.

  With snake like eyes and black and gray scales that scattered only one side of his body, at first glance you could hardly tell it was him. But it was...it was Jackson. But it wasn't Jackson.

  By the guide of his hand, the chalk glided across the board, each word worse than the next.

Stay out of my way or I'll kill all of you.

  And then he was gone. It was so fast you could hardly see it, but the broken window left no room for interpretation.

  Scott was the first to stand, the others followed soon after, Jo was the most hesitant. A single tear fell down her face as she took a single step towards the chalk board, but no more than that. She couldn't.

"Whoa, hey, hey, hey, hey!" Stiles went for the rows of books, and fell to Erica's side as her panting filled the room. "I think she's having a seizure."

  With Allison heading for the other student who was unconscious in the aisle beside them, Jo and Scott headed for Erica.

"Put her on her side," Jo kneeled in front of the girl, who was still conscious.

"He's alive," Allison called.

"Hey, we need to get her to a hospital," Stiles exclaimed, holding her steadily in her arms.

"Derek," she breathed. "Only Derek."

"Okay," Scott turned to Allison through the bookshelves. "When we get her to the hospital-"

"To Derek...to Derek."

"Go," Allison's words sent Scott to the other side of the shelves.

"Hey, Scott!"

"Hey, it's fine," Jo reassured Stiles, fixating her eyes on his with a hand on his shoulder as he worried about Scott's conversation to stay with Allison and leave him to take Erica.

"Whether you—whether we...like it or not...I'm a part of this now. Let me help."

  Stiles studied Jo for a moment before nodding.

  Jo turned her head to the crack in the bookshelves. "We'll take her...we'll take her to Derek."

"Pull her up!" Derek Hale, who Jo had only seen once before when he was trying to kill Lydia Martin, was Erica's only hope. It made Jo uneasy.

Derek, Jo and Stiles pulled Erica into the abandoned train car, setting her down on a pile of year old newspaper.

"Is she dying?"

"She might," Derek's voice was panicked. "I-which is why this is gonna' hurt." He gripped her arm, and without a warning, it snapped with an effortless twist.

Screams filled the enclosed space.

"You broke her arm!"

"It'll trigger the healing process. I still gotta' get the venom out. This is where it's really gonna' hurt." Erica's scream's grew louder, blood pouring from her arm as Derek's nails dug into it.

"Oh god," Jo covered her mouth with a wince, watching as Erica's body relaxed and her screams calmed.

"Stiles," Erica spoke softy. "You make a good Batman."

With Erica healing back with Derek, Stiles and Jo cautiously made their was back to his Jeep. Stiles studied Jo as she kicked at the gravel below her, eyes focused on her sneakers.

"Are you all right?"

Jo raised her head. "We were just threatened by a, half lizard, half captain of the lacrosse team, and now I have to go home to my douchebag father who wants to move me back to Vegas...but on the bright side...we got out of reshelving those books."

Stiles chuckled. "Sounds like a pretty sweet deal. No lizards in Vegas...well...at least...no...lacrosse playing...serial killer ones." He struggled.

Jo giggled lightly, the urge to pour out her reasonings was enduring. But it was Issac she shared those things with, not a newfound...I guess you could call him a friend.

"Are you all right? I mean...do you ever get used to it?"

"I'll let you know."