—

The footsteps coming up behind her don't at all alarm Carter as she turned back to look at the woman in front of her.

'You're only going to grow stronger. Which is why I would advise you stop skipping your lessons to hang out with that Stilinski boy.'

Carter didn't respond, still staring in shock at the woman who only chuckled at her expression.

'And him right there?' Carter's eyes followed where her finger pointed. 'He's going to become something extremely powerful. And he's going to need your help. Leilani's help also. Because she will become something extraordinary.'

Carter watched as Leilani reached for Scott's hand, giving the flare to Stiles, who stood behind her with tears in his eyes. The boy tossed the flare off to the side, not noticing how close it landed to the gasoline.

The blonde looked at her mother with worry, 'Go do what you do best, hun.'

Carter rushed forward, unknowingly sending a wave of shock over the other teens she crashed into when she forced them to the ground. The burst of flames behind them so bright it could blind them. Her head lifted at the same time as Lydia's, both girls catching a glimpse of a masked figure in the shadows of the flame. Neither girl said anything as Carter's attention immediately turned to Leilani and Jessica, who both seemed fine as they were helped up by Isaac and Allison.

"That's new."

The words dragged Carter's eyes away from her friends and over to Stiles, whose body seemed to be wrapped in a violet "blanket" of sorts. He looked up at Carter, whose brows raised in confusion.

She lifted her shoulders to shrug, "I'm not doing that."

"Yeah, you are." Leilani and Jessica mumbled in unison. Jessica, despite nearly being burnt to a crisp, smiled slightly at the ring forming around her body.

"I'd appreciate it if you could take that off of her so I can give her a proper hug." Isaac huffed, looking at the blonde witch.

"I'm not doing anything!" Carter yelled, raising her hands in defense.

"Oh my god!" Scott shouted as he backed away from the purple flame that hit his foot.

"Hey, let's relax, yeah?" Stiles said to the group before turning to Carter, his voice softening, "Listen, we don't need anyone coming out of their rooms to catch us all looking like this, okay? So just do me a favor and calm down."

Carter sighed, "I am calm! I'm not doing anything on purpose."

"It's okay. You're okay. Just relax." The Stilinski moved forward, taking her hands in his own, intertwining their fingers. "Deep breaths. Just relax."

The purple ring that seemed to be surrounding the bodies of Leilani, Jessica, and Stiles slowly unraveled before it completely disappeared. "That's good."

Stiles kept his eyes on Carter, rubbing his soothing circles over the back of her hand. A mere few seconds later, the barrier that kept Allison, Scott, and Lydia away also disappeared.

Unbeknownst to the group, a pair of older women look upon them with soft smiles on their faces. Obviously, they knew their daughters would grow up to be leaders and help others; what they didn't expect, though, was for their group of three to grow into a group of seven.

And to say they were proud would be one hell of an understatement.

"We did good." Jasmine Lewis said with a confident nod, looking over at her best friend.

"Of course we did good." Morgan Stone scoffed, jokingly rolling her eyes, "We raised them."

They shared a chuckle before turning back to the group, watching as Carter, Leilani, and Jessica embraced.

"I'd say we did good." Leilani looked between her two friends.

"Obviously, we did good." Carter rolled her eyes.

"We helped them." Jessica finished with a soft smile.

Morgan and Laura chuckled, tears filling their eyes as they looked at their kids.They look at one another before hugging one last time, pulling away and casting one last look at the three girls before they, once again, vanish into thin air.

•••

"I don't want to know. I really don't want to know, but in case you missed the announcement, the meet's cancelled, so we're heading home. Pack it in. Pack it in!" Is the first thing Leilani heard as she opened her eyes. Her first thought was to nuzzle her face back into her hard-ass pillow only to retract at the sound of a content sigh and a weight landing on her shoulder.

Her eyes snapped open in panic. She froze as she caught sight of a hand gripping her own. The sound of giggling had her looking over to see Jessica and Carter laughing at her. She stretched her neck, accidentally hitting her head on Isaac's chin, startling the Lahey awake.

Leilani fully expected him to pull away once he noticed their position, but Isaac only sighed, pulling her body closer to him as everyone else began to pile onto the bus.

After a few moments of regaining conciousness, Isaac seemed to realize what he was doing. He tried not to let the pounding of his heartbeat ruin the moment and instead tuned in to the ongoing conversation.

"I don't know what happened last night, but I'm pretty sure you saved my life." Ethan sat in one of the empty seats near the group, looking at Scott.

"Actually, I saved your life, but not that it matters that much." Stiles cut in, his voice full of sass, "It's just... it's a minor detail."

The alpha twin only sent the Stilinski a deadpanned look before continuing, "So I'm going to give you something. We're pretty sure Derek's still alive."

His words snapped everyone awake.

"But he killed one of ours. That means one of two things can happen. Either he joins our pack..." He trailed off, leaving the sentence open for Scott to finish.

"...And kills his own."

"Or Kali goes after him, and we kill him. That's the way it works."

Jess turned in her seat to ask, "That's a little harsh, no?"

"Yeah, you know, your little code of ethics there is sort of barbaric, just F.Y.I." Stiles added on.

"Hey, Ethan, I wanted to—"  Finstock's sentence is cut off by Carter harshly snatching his whistle from his neck.

"I'm going to borrow this real quick." The girl mumbled, and Lydia turns to her with a frown.

"I'm going to need that back." Coach told the girl before looking back to the Steiner twin. "Hey, Ethan..."

"Blow it." Lydia said.

Carter raised a single brow at her demanding tone and watched the way the Martin recoiled at the look before gesturing for her to do it.

The Stone teen seemed appalled at the thought, "I'm not putting my mouth on an old man's whistle."

Lydia grabbed the whistle with a huff before gently blowing the air out, dust landing in her palm.

"Is that wolfsbane?" A curious Jessica asked, fully turning in her seat to see.

"Yeah. So every time the coach blew the whistle on the bus, Scott, Isaac, Boyd, Leilani..." Stiles trailed off.

"And Ethan." Lydia added, seeming upset that Stiles didn't mention the boy. This caused Leilani to roll her eyes. It's not like Ethan didn't try to kill their friends, or anything. Multiple times.

"We all inhaled it."

"You were all poisoned by it." As Allison said this, Carter couldn't help but chuckle. The attention turned to her.

"I'm sorry. I just—imagine getting poisoned."

Jessica looked at her friend with wide eyes. She went to scold the blonde, only to turn her head so she was facing the window, making sure no one saw her holding in her laugh.

Stiles cleared his throat before continuing the conversation. "So that's how the Darach got in their heads. That's how he did it." Leilani wasted no time in snatching the whistle out of Lydia's hand and chucked it out the window, gaining Coach's attention.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! Lewis, what the hell?" Coach shouted. "Lahey, control your girlfriend!"

"Oh, she's not my—"

"He'll get right on that, Coach!" Carter yelled back with a wide smile, lifting her thumb for the man to see. He pointed at her in appreciation.

"Carter!?" Leilani harshly whispered.

"What?"

—