—

"This is it. There should be a clearing here." Mason said as he lead the way, "Maybe the clearing doesn't want to be found either."

"Maybe it knows we shouldn't here." Isaac shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe it knows Ryder would have my ass if she knew I was doing the opposite of protecting you guys."

Josie rolled her eyes, "You're protecting us by being here instead of leaving us to do this on our own."

"I should leave you." He mumbled, "Maybe something'll happen and you'll get some sense knocked into you."

"Isaac, please—" Josie sighed.

Liam huffed, his eyes staring at his shoes and he internally beat himself up. He kneeled to the ground, "I couldn't save her."

"No one could." Mason assured him, "I was standing right there. Melissa did everything medically possible--"

"While I was trying to kill Scott." Liam cut him off.

Isaac scoffed, almost in annoyance at the Dunbar's seemingly constant state of sadness and disappointment, "That wasn't your fault, Liam. Get over it."

Josie's head snapped to him in shock, her voice dropping, "Get over it?"

"You can't take all the blame." Mason, unphased by the Lahey, continued, "I mean, there was, like, 800 extenuating circumstances."

Liam: It wasn't just the moon."

"So, you did it because you wanted to? Big deal. We've all thought about killing someone at one point, you're the only one ballsy enough to go through with it." Isaac shrugged carelessly.

"No!"

"It was losing Hayden." Josie sighed, "In fear, anger, and Theo took advantage of it."

"Or maybe it was just me."

"You're not a bad person, Liam."

"Liam, you're a werewolf. There was a full moon, a Super moon. And you can't let yourself..." The Hewitt teen trailed off, immediately catching Isaac's attention, who was more than done with this conversation,

"What?"

"The Nemeton's a beacon for supernatural creatures, right?"

Liam nodded, "Yeah."

"Why?"

"So what if it takes a supernatural creature to find it."

"Was that not the plan?" Isaac asked in confusion.

"We're supernatural creatures and we can't find anything." Liam raised his brows.

Josie's eyes widen, "No, he's right. You've been looking with your human eyes."

It seemed to click in their heads, both Liam and Isaac closing their eyes, opening them shortly after to reveal golden yellow taking over their usual blue iris'.

"Woah." Isaac breathed out. Although he's seen it once before, it didn't stop the shock that went through him.

"What? What?" Mason and Josie urged.

Liam pointed, "Look."

"I don't see any—" Mason was cut short by the nemeton staring back at him, limp bodies surrounding it, "Intense."

"What the hell?"

•••

Walking down the stairs of an old train station, Ryder watched as Stiles trailed behind Malia and Scott, keeping closer to Austin.

Ryder kept her position on the railing of the stairs in case Noah showed up. She could hear the conversation had by her sister and Scott,

"He didn't want you to call me, did he?"

"No." Scott shook his head, "Is it that bad?"

"We kind of broke up, I guess." Malia admitted.

"Yeah, we kind of broke up, too." Ryder rolled her eyes. It certainly wasn't a mutual break up. Scott practically ripped Stiles' heart from his chest and stomped on it.

"Hey, you can tell me what's going on with you. I mean besides Stiles. You can talk to me."

"Now he wants to talk?" Ryder spoke under her breath. She managed to catch Austin's attention, who didn't bother questioning her as he figured she was listening in on the other supernaturals. Instead, he sat down next to next to her, intertwining their fingers while watching Stiles pace back and forth.

"I said I'd help find this kid and I'm doing it to save Stiles' dad. Don't ask me to talk." Malia shut it down.

"Well, I'm not asking. I'm offering. I'm just saying it's okay if you want to."

"I know." Malia went down a small opening. The others quickly got up the follow.

They found themselves in what Austin could only describe as an underground tunnel.

Ryder perked up at the sight of Malia pausing, "I got it. I got his scent."

•••

"There's only four here."

"And none of them look like your friend?" Isaac asked, typing away at his phone, hoping to get a response from Ryder or Austin. Or, anyone at this point.

"No." Josie answered him, growing more and more worried by the second.

"That means four Chimeras are missing." Mason concluded.

"I only care about one. Hayden's alive. She has to be." Liam said, his mood picking up.

"Okay, maybe you're right." Mason shrugged, "Either way, we gotta tell someone about this. We get the cops down here and they can figure out who's dead, who's alive and who's whatever. Sound good?"

"Sounds like trouble." Isaac said.

Just as the words left his lips, a bright light blinded them.

Josie lifted a hand to cover her eyes, she was slowly pushed behind Isaac who moved to stand in front of the younger teens protectively.

"You four. Stay right where you are." A police officer shouted out to them.

"Shit."

A voice spoke up, one Liam and Josie recognized instantly, "That's it. That's where I found the bodies. Four of them."

"Hayden..."

•••

"This is Noah's. He was here. I think he's close." Malia lifted her to reveal a smudge of blood.

"Guys... I think we've been down tunnels like this before like when we were trying to find Liam and Hayden." Scott said.

"Your point?" Austin raised a brow in question, confused on how that at all mattered in this current moment.

Stiles agreed, "Okay, so what?"

"Maybe, it means we're closer than we think." The McCall continued, "Maybe there's something else down here. Something that we haven't found yet."

Ryder thought that information was obvious. Apparently, not. She kept close to Austin as they followed Scott.

"Yeah, nothing that helps my dad."

"None of this is helpful." Ryder scoffed, looking at Scott with a glare. Of course, he'd want to get off track instead of focus on one thing at a time.

"Look, we can't just be standing around here waiting for something to—"

All heads snap to Stiles as he ended his sentence with a grunt. Their eyes widen sight of him lying on the ground, unconscious.

Austin ran towards the Stilinski whilst Malia and Ryder flicked their claws out and took a protective stance over the humans.

Austin helped him up, patting his shoulder, "You okay?"

Stiles nodded, looking between him and Scott, "Yeah, fine."

"Malia!" Ryder yelled out, the Tate girl growling loudly in Noah's face as she pinned the boy to the ground.

The boy pleaded, his hands raising in defense, "Let me go, please, please. They're coming."

Austin's brows furrowed, "Who?"

Slow footsteps echoed off the tunnel walls, a clicking and chittering sound following after every step.

Ryder strained her ears to hear where the sound was coming from, giving Stiles a look to indicate that they were no where near close to them.

He took that as his chance, slamming Noah against the wall the second Malia let him loose,

"You're not going anywhere."

"I said I don't remember."

"You don't remember anything?" Stiles didn't believe him.

"No. Not when it happens. Not when I change." Noah panted out, struggling against Stiles' hold.

"You clawed my dad half to death, okay, and now it's poisoning him. You're gonna start remembering every detail right now."

"Scott, I hear them."

"Yeah, I do, too."

"Stiles, they're close." Ryder called back to him.

"Hey, Stiles, get him out of here—"

"Go with him." Ryder cut Austin off, "Both of you, go to the hospital. Figure out a way to save his dad."

"We're not gonna be able to stop them." Malia told her sister.

Scott spoke up before Ryder could, "But we can slow them down."

Austin pecked Ryder on the lips, "I love you. Be careful. Call me when you're safe."

"I will. I love you, too."

Austin pulled at Stiles shirt, "Stiles, come on."

Ryder watched as they ran, her heart pounding in her chest, hoping they got away in time.

"We're gonna be okay." Scott tried to reassure the girls.

Ryder scoffed, "Yeah, because you're up to full fighting ability." She gestured to the blood seeping from his shirt.

"Scott, we're gonna die down here." Malia added.

Scott shook his head, "No, we're not."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because you're not the only one that I called."

"Get down!" Ryder didn't even need to hear him speak again as the sound of a gun cocking let her know that it was Chris Argent.

He shot at the dread doctors, doing little to no damage everytime he stepped closer.

"Run."

Without being told twice, Ryder grabbed Malia's hand, not even bothering to look back to see if Scott was close behind.

As long as she and her sister were out of there, she'd be fine.

•••

"Step back. I think I can break through it. It's just sometimes, most of the time, I lose control."

"So, then you're not doing it, right?" Austin seemed as if he were asking a question, but he wasn't. It was his way of suggesting that someone without full control shouldn't be using their powers when he and Stiles had no where to run.

"It's our only option." Stiles' shoulders fell as he looked at the George teen. He too, was hesitant, but he wanted nothing more than to get to his father as quickly as he could.

"Fine."

"You better step back." Noah told them, pulling his sleeves up.

He groaned in pain, a soft growl escaping his lips as bones began to grow from his wrists.

"Oh, ew." Austin couldn't bring himself to look away, despite how grueling it was, "That's disgusting."

When he looked back, the gate was open and Noah was leading them out.

"Let's go."

•••

A loud yawn left Isaac's lips as he entered the house, Austin not too far behind him.

"Dude, shut up." Austin nudged him.

The soft click of the door shutting seemed loud due to how quiet the house was.

"Your mom's awake." Isaac muttered.

Austin hummed, kneeling down to take his shoes off, "She was probably worried."

"Of course I was worried!" Jennifer's voice startled the two, "What the hell have you two been doing all day?"

"You mean, aside from saving lives?"

—
A/N: raise your hand if you're ready
for me to be done with season 5 🙋🏽‍♀️
AND it's my birthday 😝