𝕭𝖆𝖉 𝖗𝖊𝖕𝖚𝖙𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓
fifty - 3X10
The Overlooked

"NATALIA..." ALLISON BREATHES, HER HANDS STILL GENTLY HOLDING HER JAW AS THOUGH IT'S GLASS.

Nat looks up at her, disorientated, her phone having slipped from her hand and crashed down to the floor a while ago- how long? She's not sure; it felt like hours, yet, logically, she knew it only must've been seconds, at most. She hears Stiles calling her name, and somewhere in the back of her mind, she knows she should answer him and let him know she's okay- that she hasn't been taken too- but, she can't. She can't move- she cant speak- she can't...anything! She feels almost catatonic; paralysed with numbness at the news.

Noah is gone.

He's been taken as a sacrifice.

He's de- is he dead?

No- no! Surely, not.

Not yet, at least.

Images of Noah's dead body- beaten and torn apart, stained with blood, that she couldn't save from being spilled- appears in her head and she flinches.

Emotions crash back into her, like a tsunami over a defenceless town- grief, anger, loneliness- and a dull ringing noise echoes on repeat in her ears.

She feels weird- wrong- out of place. Everything around her, this whole situation, feels like one sick hallucination, and she keeps digging her nails sharply into her palms, hoping the pain will jerk her back to consciousness. But, she never wakes.

This is real- Erica is dead, and Noah is next in line.

Allison's hands on her skin suddenly feel too heavy and hot for her face, and she stumbles away, sending a harsh shove towards the huntress, who looks back at her heartbroken- like she'd just betrayed her.

She scowls at the girl, opening her mouth to speak, before slamming it shut again. Nat wants to demand details of what happened that night from the girl; she wants to know every-single thing, but she hasn't got time to. She needs to find Noah- she needs to save him, before it's too late.

Revenge and explanations can wait- Erica's justice can wait. She needs to focus on Noah, someone who's still alive (she hopes), the dead and buried can be revisited any time, but Noah...well, he's on a timer.

And it's rapidly running out.

Nat, with a newfound determination running through her veins, picks up her phone and turns on her heels, stalking away from Allison without another word and pushing thoughts of her involvement- and her 'love'- into the deep confines of her head. In a place where she can reevaluate it later and experience the feeling of her betrayal all over again, in her own time.

"Nat! Wait, I can help you!" Allison yells, walking quickly after Nat, her voice tinged with desperation. Nat checks her phone for any damage, and notes how Stiles had ended the call. She can't think of any way to console him over text, and so simply resolves to call him back as soon as she gets away from her new (and highly unwanted) shadow.

"I don't want your help." Nat spits back at her, continuing down the hallway, ignoring the way her heart convulses in confusion at the sudden change of emotions towards the girl that she had once seen- and loved- like a sister.

"Please, Nat! The sheriff may not have a lot of time-!" She pleads.

"Oh," she laughs humourlessly, her voice bitter with anger, "So, now you care?"

"Of course, I do!" She argues, her footfalls increasing in an attempt to keep up with Nat as she twists and turns her way through the school halls, towards the exit, the sound of the recital behind them fading as they venture deeper into the building, "Would- would you just stop and look at me for a second!"

Nat glares stubbornly in front of her, not even slowing down her pace. Petty? Sure. But Nat feels that she deserves it.

Allison stops and sighs loudly, before trailing after her once more, "Nat, listen, what happened... happened, okay? And I wish, more than anything, that I could go back in time and change it, but I can't- I can't! I can never fix it...But, right now, we need to put this behind us and work together, for them-"

"Put this behind us?" She reiterates in disbelief, "You're the reason that Erica isn't here with me, right now! You're the reason her and Boyd got caught by the alphas- you are the reason she is dead!" She shouts, turning to face Allison furiously. The girl takes a step back, her face flickering with regret. And Nat both loves and hates it with every fibre of her being.

"You don't know that." Allison whispers, guilt invading her features and heavily seeping into her tone.

"I know enough." Nat returns sharply.

Before Allison can say anything else to defend her case- or attempt to persuade Nat of her innocence- Isaac appears, running towards them, concern on his face. Nat turns to him, all the while making sure not to turn her back on Allison (she won't ever make that mistake again). She feels tears poke at her eyes at the familiar- and trustworthy - face, and she has a sudden urge to tell him about Allison, to warn him from her- which she does, or at least, she tries to...

"She shot-!"

"I know." Issac interrupts softly, his face grim and guarded with caution as he looks at her as though she's an animal about to snap.

Nat recoils from him, "You knew?" He nods slowly, his eyes not straying from hers for even a second as he gazes sympathetically at her. Nat's face light up once again, another wave of fury taking her hostage, "You knew, and you didn't tell me? How can you stand to be around her? Don't think I haven't noticed you two, talking in dark corners, behind Scott's back- and, apparently, mine too! She hurt them, Isaac. She hurt your pack- your- our- family!"

"I know!" He exhales, looking towards Allison and noting her watery eyes, "She was being coerced, she didn't-"

"Don't you dare tell me she 'didn't mean to'! She knew exactly what she was doing with Gerard!"

"Just like you did with your father?" He rebukes harshly, defending the young huntress, even at the price of one of his first friend's emotions.

Nat flinches like he had physically hit her. Allison does something similar to and steps forward, hands outstretched, ready to comfort Nat on instinct. Natalia steps back immediately, her face hardening and her body growing stiff.

"Nat...I'm- I'm sorry, I didn't-" Isaac attempts to apologise, his face twisted in horror at his own words.

He knows he's messed up. He talked about an unspoken topic between them: fathers, a clear neon-'no'-red-sign for both of them.

But Nat doesn't even find that his words are what hurt her the most; it's the fact that he said them, that does.

She didn't see it coming, she's been oblivious to their silent poison, and she can't help but hate them even more for it. At least with Atticus' group, she knew she couldn't trust them, she knew they were out for her blood. But, with Allison? She had loved her, not in the way the other girl clearly might've wanted her to, but she did- and with her whole heart to. She would've done anything for her. Anything. If Allison would've asked her to steal, to harm someone, to kill someone- she'd have done it in a heartbeat, regardless of any moral-wrongdoing it may weigh on her soul.

And, that's why it hurts so much.

Because, Allison was one of the very few people that she knew she could depend on- that she knew would have her back.

But now: with Erica dead, Noah missing, and Allison and Isaac going rouge, she feels her stability breaking. Everyone who was holding her together is slowly disappearing, and Nat can feel the grips of insanity teasing at the edges of her brain.

Deep down, in a dark part of her that she rarely visits (yet finds herself setting up camp in more and more often, recently), knows what she'll do if Noah isn't found alive- and it's not pretty.

Maybe that's why she finally decides to drop this issue with Allison and Isaac, because selfishly, she doesn't want to become the monster everyone else already sees her as. She doesn't want to become Atticus. Even though she knows, in some primal part of her brain, and in her heart, that it's inevitable.

She'll always be her father's daughter; his best creation and his deadliest weapon.

"In the end, I made my choice," Natalia interjects, coldly, pulling herself from her brain to face the two strangers in front of her blankly, "I left him. I got out. And I didn't shoot anybody while doing it either."

She turns, leaving behind a regretful Isaac and a teary Allison. Neither try to stop her this time, and she's silently- and ashamedly- thankful for it. She doesn't think she'll ever be able to look either in the eye again, after tonight.

The betrayal that had begun festering in her, grows and stretches to invade the image of Isaac in her head. He knew...he knew what Allison had done and instead of telling her, he let her call her a friend- family, even!

How could he- she- they- do that? Did she not mean as much to them, as they do- did- to her?

Nat ignores her pulsing thoughts and pulls out her phone again, dialling Stiles' number before she can fall into another pit of despair and self-pity. She hasn't got time to mourn the loss of her friends- not like she could Erica- she needs to focus on Noah, on Stiles. Her real family. They need her.

Before she can press 'call' however, a hand shoot out and grabs onto her arm, pulling her to the side and into a dark, empty classroom.

"It's here! It's here!" Mrs Blake cries, her panicked face looking up at Nat with wide eyes, "It- it had a clawed face- it...- It went after me and Lydia- we got separated, I-!"

Nat moves her hands to hold onto the woman's shoulders, all her prior emotions fading into the background as worry takes over, "Wait! Wait- where's Lydia now? Is she hurt?"

Mrs Blake shakes her head rapidly, tightening her grip on Nat's arm almost painfully. Nat ignores it, figuring she must just be scared after facing the Darach- someone who Nat has yet to formally meet, "No. She left to find your friends- Scott and Stiles!"

Nat nods along with the English teacher, mentally appraising Lydia for going straight to Scott and Stiles for help, "Where did you see it?"

Mrs Blake gestures with her free hand towards the hallway, making Nat turn to face the open door she'd just been pulled through, "Just down the hall, in one of the music rooms. It was waiting there for us- it must have known about the recital tonight! But, why did it go after us!? We haven't done anything- and we're not supernatural, like the others!"

Nat expertly ignores her terror-induced speech, which after listening to Stiles, for over half of her life, talk about everything and nothing in one breath, is like a breeze.

She turns her attention from the door to send the older woman (what she hopes is) a reassuring smile, "It'll be okay. Just call Derek, or something, and let him know what happened, he'll come get you."

And, with those words, Nat moves away from her, pulling her arm from her hold and stepping towards the door.

Mrs Blake quickly grabs ahold of her arm once again, before she can get too far, and pulls her back to her side with a gasp, "You can't go after it! We barely got out alive!"

"I have to." Nat answers curtly, barely repressing her annoyance as she tries to gently shake off the scared woman's hold. Jesus, why is everyone so touchy these days?

"No, you can't! It jumped out the window, anyway- it left! It's not here anymore." Mrs Blake elaborates shakily. Nat stares at her for a second, taking note of the tremors in her hands as they grip onto her tightly, and she sighs. She can't just leave her here, even if everything in her screams at her to chase after the Darach- she's important to Derek, and she doesn't feel like being on his shit-list again for leaving his new-girlfriend scared and alone after she'd been attacked.

"We'll find it," she declares. And when Mrs Blake's face turns to fear once again, she quickly corrects, "I'll find it, after I take you to Derek."

"Derek?" Mrs Blake echoes, relaxing slightly, almost in a daze.

Nat nods, "He'll protect you, while this thing is still active. You'll be safe with him. Probably."

"Okay." She agrees lowly, her voice so vulnerable and soft that it makes Nat hesitate, her mind flashing back to Erica for a second.

She shakes the stray thought away from her mind
before she can become too far lost in the fantasy of it, and nods sharply, moving towards the door once again with Mrs Blake closely following her this time, her arm still wrapped securely around the con's as though if she let's go, Nat will disappear.

Nat directs the woman back down the halls, towards the exit, where she was originally planning to go before she was pulled into the classroom.

She glances back behind them a few times, an uncomfortable feeling settling in her chest. Something's not right. Why did the Darach go after them, of all people? Why didn't the Darach kill them- or take them as a sacrifice at least? Why didn't Lydia take Mrs Blake with her when she left? Sure she might've been scared, but Lydia wouldn't have just leave her behind like this, no matter what...

Nat pulls her phone out of her pocket, resuming her process of dialling Stiles, and hoping that hearing his voice and keeping her hands busy will help calm her nerves.

"Who are you calling? Derek?" Mrs Blake questions with tearful eyes, her head darting around the place like the Darach will jump out at any moment. Which, Nat figures, it might.

"Stiles." She answers back, ignoring as Mrs Blake's eyes stare at her with an unidentifiable emotion. She hasn't got time to decode everything around her, she just needs to focus on finding Noah.

"Nat!" The boy yells as he answers the phone, "She took- she- she's got my dad, I don't-!"

"I know," Nat says softly, hoping to stop him from panicking too much. She needs him to keep a level head in this, if they want to find Noah in time, "It'll be okay. We'll find him. But, what do you mean 'she', the Darach's a woman? I was really betting on your Harris idea. Do you know who she is?"

Stiles curses into the receiver, "It's Mrs Blake, she hurt Lydia and took my dad from the school! She escaped before we could get her-!"

Nat inhales sharply, stopping her steps to stare at the woman beside her. Mrs Blake simply grins up at her with dark eyes, nails sharply digging into Nat's arm.

"Nat? Nat, are you okay? Do you know where she is?"

"Yeah," she breathes into the receiver, unwilling to tear her eyes away from the woman- the Darach- beside her, "I'm staring at her."

It's silent for a second on the other side of the phone, before Scott's voice appears in her ear, replacing Stiles's, "Get out of there, Nat! She's dangerous- run-!"

"Hang up." Mrs Blake demands, her voice cold, sounding nothing like the woman she had been comforting beforehand. Her hands grip even tighter around her arm, and Nat's sure it's gonna leave bruises, but she can't find it in herself to care, too preoccupied with her impending doom.

"I gotta go, Scott," she murmers, trying to keep her voice as steady as she can as to not worry her friends any further, "just- no matter what, find Noah. Save him, okay?"

"Nat-!" They both call frantically. She ignores it and complies with Mrs Blake's command.

As soon as she does, shoving it back into her pocket under the Darach's watchful gaze, she pulls her arm away from the woman, no longer being able to stand her touch and not wanting to be seen as too obedient.

"You know, your determination to save that man- the sheriff- is almost admirable." She observes, tilting her head to watch Nat closely.

"Where is he?" She immediately barks.

The woman laughs, "Oh, no. It won't be that easy."

"Is he alive?" She probes after a second of hesitance, unsure if she really wants the answer, but unable to stop the question from falling from her lips nonetheless.

Mrs Blake nods, "For now."

"Why are you doing this? Why us?"

"We're not here to talk about tragic backstories." she chastises, shaking her head in mock disappointment.

"Then what are we here for?" Nat fires back tensely, wondering if she'd be able to reach into her boot and pull out her dagger without getting her throat slit. She decides not to risk it, however- the Darach is an enemy she hasn't seen fight yet, so (annoyingly) she's at a disadvantage this time.

"I've got a proposition for you."

Nat starts, staring at her in disgust, "I'm not doing anything for you, you manic bitch!"

"It's not what you can do for me- but what we can do together. I've been watching you, and it seems that we've got a common enemy: Kali."

Nat jerks her head to face her more intentively, interest unknowingly creeping onto her face. Mrs Blake smiles at the sight.

"Kali?"

Nat had thought the Darach would be in leagues with the alpha pack, but it seems she was wrong.

They're enemies. Why?

Mrs Blake rolls her eyes at the con's dumbfounded expression, "Yes, Kali. You remember her, right? Brown hair, over-extreme nails, killed your girlfriend?"

Nat tries to hide her flinch at the mention of Erica, the subject still sore despite her flippant attitude, "And what do you get from all of this- you don't exactly need me. You could kill her yourself without me- and have it done quicker."

"Yes, I could," she agrees with a nod, "but where would be the fun in that?" Nat sends her a stern look, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. She won't help her unless she tells her the real reason she's needed. Mrs Blake must see this as she scowls slightly, "Listen, Kali hurt me too, and I'm feeling nice. So you can either help, or I'll do it myself- your choice."

"You're lying," Nat accuses, stepping away from the woman cautiously, "there's another reason. Isn't there?"

Mrs Blake's expression shifts to annoyance, "Call it rightful justice, then- and, I need bait."

Nat scoffs, there it is. The real reason she's needed: to be bait, "And what's your plan, dangle me in front of her and hope that she goes after me?"

She had earlier decided to leave her revenge behind her for the moment, but with the offer dangling before her, so tempting and alluring, Nat can't help but want to take it. She can do both right? She'll use her to stop Kali, and then she'll take on Blake herself and force her to tell her where Noah is! What could possible go wrong?

"First, we need to go to Derek." Mrs Blake directs, moving around Nat to face the exit, and ignoring her question.

Nat's heart drops slightly- Derek. Shit.

She'd forgotten about their involvement together.

Fuck, he's gonna freak when he finds out!

"Don't you think you've done enough to him?" Nat returns, her voice low in warning.

Mrs Blake turn to her in amusement, "I didn't know you were friends."

"We're not," Nat protests quickly, scrunching her nose up in disgust, "But, that doesn't mean I'm just going to let you hurt him."

"Let me?" She echoes with a chuckle, "You have no choice. If you want to kill Kali, you'll follow what I say, to the letter, or I'll kill you, then her, and then your friends."

Nat follows after her, the unlikely duo exiting the school to move towards the car park together, "Really feeling this teamwork. It's so inspiring, being threatened with murder."

Mrs Blake moves towards a dark car, near the back of the carpark, hidden beneath the shadows of the night. She opens the driver's door, gesturing towards the passenger seat with her other hand. Nat silently does as she's asked, climbing in the seat and sitting as close to the door as possible, al the while ignoring the nagging sense in her bones that screams that maybe this isn't such a good idea.

"So why are we going to Derek first and not Kali?" Nat inquires after Mrs Blake starts the car, moving them onto the road and in the direction of Derek's loft.

"Because your little friend's are going to mess everything up, if they get to Derek first," Blake declares, "And I'm not going to let that happen."

"If you hurt them-" Nat begins, threateningly, not liking the woman's tone against her friends.

"Oh, save your little threats. There's nothing you can do to me. And as long as they don't get in my way, you won't have anything to worry about."

Nat stays silent. She knows they'll get in her way- it's what they're best at, the idiots.

"You just have to help me convince Derek that I'm innocent, and then we'll go find Kali." Mrs Blake orders.

Nat sends her a look from the corner of her eye, "It'll look weird if I support you and not Scott and Stiles, Derek won't believe it for a second. And why would we be together- we've barely talked. I mean, It'll be screaming suspicion just by us being near each other!"

Mrs Blake clicks her tongue, "We're together because you saved me, Nat, or don't you remember?" She grins towards the teen, her eyes forced into mock innocence, "Did you like that, by the way? Looking after me? Did it remind you of your little girlfriend, Erica?"

Nat clenches her jaw, staring stubbornly ahead of her at the darkening sky.

"I mean, I'm sure you did enjoy it- I hoped you would. You got all heroic in there- do you like being the hero, Natalia? I much prefer being the villain, personally- it's more fun, right?" She laughs as Nat's face remains impassive, her nails curling into her things in an attempt to keep her cool. They're close to Derek's loft now, and so, Mrs Blake falls silent (thankfully), mentally preparing herself for her little innocent act that she's going to play.

"Stay behind for a minute, I'll need to speak with him alone." Is the last thing she says, before she stops the vehicle and starts towards the loft.

Nat huffs in frustration, feeling like a dog being trapped in a car by it's owner as she glances towards the window, "Could've at least left it open a little," she mutters, before her eyes catch hold of a familiar jeep, hidden beside the corner of the building. She smirks at the sight, feeling proud of her friends, who've clearly beaten Mrs Blake to Derek, "those little shits."

She climbs out of the car, moving towards Derek loft, unable to hide her small-twinge of worry as she remembers Mrs Blake's warning.

Before Nat can even open the loft door, thunder rumbling behind her, it's thrown open and Scott appears, a look of relief on his face.

"Nat! You're okay!" He breathes, pulling her forward into the loft so that Stiles can come round her other side, his eyes glassy.

"We'd thought you'd been sacrificed!"

Nat winces, "Thanks for the confidence, Stiles.  Has she said anything about-"

He cuts her off with a shake of his head, "No."

Nat looks behind them at Derek and Mrs Blake. The former holds the woman in a tight grip, but both seem to be staring at them. Mrs Blake looking a little peeved that Nat hadn't obeyed her instructions to stay, and Derek with his permanent scowl.

"Don't. You can't kill her- we need her, unfortunately." Nat sighs, wincing as she hears the words fall from her lips. She can't believe she's defending this woman after everything she's done, but as long as Noah remains missing, Nat will do everything in her power to ensure his safe return, and if that means playing friends with the enemy, then so be it.

"She's right, you need me!" Mrs Blake nods- well, as much as she can with the man's hand around her throat.

"What are you?" Derek asks through gritted teeth.

"The only person who can save your sister." She gasps in response, making Derek tighten his hold.

Nat steps forward, ignoring her comment about Cora being in danger for the time being, "Wait, Derek, you can't! Not yet, at least."

"Call Peter...call him!" She wheezes. When Derek doesn't move, his hands still holding her neck, Nat does it for him. Pulling her phone from her pocket and searching for Peter's contact (one she had stolen from Stiles, who had to search through the phone book for it, after refusing to be kept out of the loop by anyone). She moves closer to them, nudging his shoulder with the phone, until he takes it from her hand, the other remaining firmly on the Darach.

Nat then quickly steps back to Scott and Stiles, who immediately fall into a triangle formation in the middle of the room, all weary of what's to come.

"So, why are you with her exactly?" Stiles questions lowly, clearing his throat when his words come out with an undertone of sadness.

Nat's eyes flicker to him, then back to Derek and Mrs Blake, who seem unconcerned with them, "She wants me to help her kill Kali. Said she had a plan, and that I would be great bait. I don't know how much I believe about that her though..."

She feels twin stares on either side of her head, but she keeps her resolve, staring straight ahead as Derek speaks to Peter through her phone.

"You're going to help her go after Kali?" Stiles asks, a strange emotion in his voice. Scott watches them both anxiously, darting his eyes from them to Derek, not sure who to focus on first.

"If she can kill Kali, then yes, I'll help her...But you know that if it comes down to it, I'd chose saving your dad over killing Kali, right? I want him back too, Stiles."

Stiles swallows thickly, before nodding firmly, "Right."

Before Nat can say anything else to further convince him, a straggled scream falls from Mrs Blake's lips, Derek's hold tightening on her throat as he hangs up the call.

"Derek...," Scott trails hesitantly, stepping closer, "Derek, what are you doing?"

"Her life...it's in my hands!" Mrs Blake grunts, her feet being lifted off the ground by Derek's pure strength.

Stiles shakes his head, "Stop! Derek, stop!"

"We need her." Nat adds on firmly, her shoulder brushing Stiles's in support.

"Stilinski...you'll never find him..." Mrs Blake agrees, desperately. Nat wants to throttle her at her words, but she knows she can't, and she suspects that Derek knows it too as his eyes dart momentarily to Stiles's mournful face.

"Derek!" Scott yells, his voice stern. At the sound of his name, Derek releases his hold on the woman, stepping away as though she's got some contagious disease.

The three of them crowd closer in return, easily accepting Derek into their group and flanking him supportively.

Mrs Blake, seeing this, chuckles lowly, pushing herself up from the floor where she had fallen after Derek had dropped his hold on her, "That's right. You need me- all of you," she turns to look at Nat, her face growing more smug by the second, "See? I told you we'd make a great team."

Those around them send her a strange look, but Nat ignores them, staring down Mrs Blake menacingly, "We aren't a team. As soon as I have what I want, I won't stop anyone from dismembering your body- this ends with Kali and Noah." She finishes, gesturing between the two of them with a scowl. Mrs Blake simply laughs in amusement, something that is cut off when Derek pulls her roughly from the ground, pushing her towards the door with a firm hand.

"Move." He commands.

"No need to be so rough." She snarks as she's directed out of the loft and into Derek's car.

The three teens scramble behind them, stepping towards the baby blue jeep. Nat jumps into the backseat, watching closely as Derek drives off, the Darach his passenger, "Should we really be letting Derek go alone with her?"

Scott shrugs as Stiles turns the jeep on, "He'll be fine."

Nat looks at him unconvinced, but drops it quickly as they move off after Derek and Mrs Blake.

"Something feels wrong about this, you know?" Stiles hums after a second of silence, "We proved it to Derek, but she still had this look like it didn't matter. You know, like it was all going to plan. You saw it, didn't you?"

Nat nods, her eyes never once veering from the vehicle ahead of them, "It feels like we're playing right into her game. But, what exactly is her game? I mean, when we were at the school, she was so concerned with getting to Derek before you guys, but as soon as we got here, it seems like she already knew you'd be there..."

"Either way, it doesn't matter," Scott comments, sending them both a look of reassurance (that Nat doesn't find any ounce of comfort in), "We'll be ready for whatever she pulls. We have to be."

Nat, despite her doubt, nods firmly in agreement, not wanting to bring his morale down.

"So, how did you and Mrs Blake become revenge buddies?" Stiles speaks up. Nat has half a mind to ignore him, or give him a sarcastic answer in response, but with the way that he says it, and the way his eyes dart anxiously across the road, she knows he's only asking to fill the silence around them. Something the boy hates more than anything, since his mother's death.

"I don't know, it just- it just kinda happened...She wants Kali dead for some reason, and I want her gone- for good, so..."

"You're not gonna kill Kali, are you?" Scott suddenly asks, his voice tinged with shock.

Nat frowns at him, "Scott, she killed Erica and Boyd-"

"That doesn't mean you have to kill her in return! We don't kill people, Nat. That makes us no better than them."

Whoever said she was better than them? She wonders internally, her heart burdened with guilt and pain. She's exactly like them- she's not yet a killer, but a monster doesn't have to end a life to be considered so. There are much more monstrous things, than the mercy of murder.

Before she can retort, or defend her case, they reach the hospital, and just like that, their conversation is forgotten, shoved straight into the back of their minds as they focus back on the current task at hand: Cora.

In front of them, Derek and Mrs Blake exit the car, with the former keeping a tight grip on the latter's arm as they near the building.

Nat pulls herself from the backseat, moving her knife from her boot to her pocket for easier access, before hiding it beneath her jacket as she waits in front of the jeep for Scott and Stiles, ignoring as rain soaks her clothes and lightning sparks up the sky around her.

"...What's that?" Scott questions, his voice straining to be heard over the loud winds.

Stiles rounds the jeep, a wooden baseball bat clasped tightly in his hands, "Well, you got claws, Nat's got her knife, and I got a bat."

"My knife." Scott grumbles, eyeing the girl with disdain as he remembers the day she had taken it from his house. And then held Stiles hostage with it.

Nat rolls her eyes, pushing him forward, with a gentle shove to his shoulder, "That was ages ago- move on, already!"

The five of them rush into the hospital, halting slightly when they see the disheveled state of the interior. The lights flicker on and off rapidly, hospital cots left astray in the empty halls, and a few nurses and doctors bustle about, floating room to room as they check for any more patients- it seems like the storm is effecting them more than anyone else, Nat notes.

"Scott!" Melissa yells, making the small group turn to face her as she nears them with a frown, "What are you doing here? The hospital's evacuating..."

"We're here for Cora." Scott answers her tensely.

Melissa glances behind him to the rest of them, "What, all of you?"

Nat smiles at her in response, "Since she's been stuck here with Peter, we thought she could use the company."

Melissa nods slowly, before glancing down at the weapon in Stiles's hand incredulously, "Why does Stiles have my bat?"

Nat stares at it, sending her a shrug, "Just in case Peter gets comical, or turns evil- again."

Scott moves his hands to Melissa's shoulders, drawing her attention away from Nat and back onto him again, "Mom, just trust me on this- you need to get out of here, right now."

Melissa hesitates, her eyes inspecting her son's face closely, "The building is supposed to be clear in thirty minutes. We've got two ambulances that are coming back- one's ten minutes out, the other's twenty. Cora needs to be on one of those. They'll be picking up in the basement garage."

Scott nods firmly, "Got it. Okay."

The boy then turns, pushing the rest of them towards the elevator at the end of the hall. The teens move in first, hugging the back wall as Derek pulls Mrs Blake in behind them.

"You don't have to keep me on a leash, Derek. I'm going to help." Mrs Blake- she should really find out her first name- assures.

The man doesn't answer her, or loosen his hold, opting instead to stare blankly forward. Mrs Blake turns, her eyes flickering to a glaring Scott and Stiles and then to a scowling Nat. She rolls her eyes in annoyance, turning away at the less than hospitable expressions.

As soon as the elevator doors spring open, the group pour out of the small metal container, desperate for more space. They move quickly towards Cora's room, the silence becoming overwhelming to their senses as the almost-abandoned hospital ominously swallows their fear.

When they reach the room, however, it isn't to the sight of Cora and Peter. The room is empty, the bed-sheets crumpled and pushed to the floor as a few random objects are thrown around in a sign of struggle. All in all, it looks like neither Hale left willingly...

"Where the fuck is she?" Nat exhales, twisting her head erratically for any signs of the girl, or Peter. No one answers her, all of them as surprised as the next.

Her eyes soon catch ahold of blood on the floor, the stark colour of it against the sterile floor shocking her, "Derek..."

He turns to look at her and she gestures down to the puddle with a small jerk of her head. He follows her eye-line to the floor, his face dropping at the sight of the red trail.

The man moves in front, Mrs Blake in tow, as he follows the blood back out into the hallway. The sound of grunting and howls reach their ears as a set of double doors are suddenly thrown wide open, Peter's body flying from the gap between them. The man slides across the floor, stopping right bellow their feet as he stares up at them.

Peter gestures breathlessly towards the combined form of Ethan and Aiden, and the limp body of Cora that lies behind them, with his chin, "We got a problem. Big problem."

Nat stares at them, silently weighing up her options, as the figure howls loudly. A knife's not gonna do shit against them, she tried it with Kali- twice- and all it managed to do was piss her off, so there's no point in using it now, it seems she'll have to play this smart. Which means, leaving it to the werewolves and Stiles' bat, which doesn't exactly fill her with confidence.

Scott lunges forwards, Derek at his heel as they wrestle with the alphas, their howls echoing throughout the halls. Stiles bends down next to Peter, grabbing his shoulder firmly to get his attention, "Help me."

Nat moves to assist Stiles with pulling Peter to his feet, intending to contribute in any way that she can with his plan, but before she can do either, Mrs Blake backs away, moving towards the elevator warily. Nat turns to face her just as she spins on her feet, darting towards the exit and to the safety of the open doors.

Natalia doesn't let her get far however, as she pats Stiles firmly on the shoulder and she takes off after her, not wanting to let their only lead to Noah go free. Stiles calls after her, but she ignores him, ducking into the elevator just as the doors begin to close. She pulls her knife out, holding it against Mrs Blake's throat as her other hand comes around, pulling her back against her chest in a tight hold, "Where the hell do you think your going, huh? I thought we were a team?" She mocks.

Mrs Blake struggles in her hold, "Get off me! You cant kill me for trying to survive. They were going to be slaughtered out there!"

"Yeah, no thanks to you and your games," Nat growls, watching the floor numbers decrease as the elevator moves towards the ground floor, "Do you really think I was just gonna let you go, without telling me where Noah is?"

"What about Kali, I thought that's who you wanted?" Mrs Blake fires back.

Nat scoffs, "To hell with Kali! If you dont tell me where Noah is, it won't be her I'll be after anymore, it'll be you."

The elevator doors slide open before Mrs Blake can retort. She attempts to jerk free from the con's hold, but Nat simply holds her tighter, quickly leaning over her to press the button back to the second floor and watching mutely as they close back up again.

Mrs Blake glares at her over her shoulder as the elevator begins to move, "I was going to go back, you know?"

"I'm sure you were," Nat snorts, "I'm just here to escort you. Just in case you get lost in this big building, you know?"

"Then put the knife away, we both know I could kill you with less." Mrs Blake huffs.

Nat squeezes her tighter to her body, pressing the knife more firmly into her neck, "No. I don't think I'm gonna do that. Thanks for the suggestion though."

When the doors reopen again, Nat tenses, standing still for a moment as she looks out into the empty hallway in front of them.

Where is everyone? They weren't even gone for that long!

Nat nudges Mrs Blake forwards, mindful of the knife she holds to her neck, "Move."

"They could still be out here!" The woman hisses, trying to back away from the open space.

Nat pushes her forwards more firmly, "Then you better hurry the fuck up."

"Where are we even going?" She inquires shakily as they move cautiously through the building.

Nat glares at her, annoyance growing in her chest at the sound of her voice, "To wherever Scott and Stiles are."

Mrs Blake scoffs, "Is that your answer for everything 'Scott and Stiles'?"

"Shut up." Nat grumbles, uninterested in bickering with the woman.

Sounds of shouting ricochet off the walls and they both freeze, sharing a look. Deciding to risk it, Nat forces Mrs Blake to move towards it.

As they get closer to it, the shouting becomes more familiar. Stiles.

She looks to her left, noting fragments of a wooden bat at her side as she walks more confidently towards the room the yelling comes from.

"There has to be something that we can do. We have to help her-!" Scott begins, stopping himself sharply when Nat pushes Mrs Blake into the room, dropping the knife from her neck to allow her to talk.

"You can't. Only I can," she says, "I can save her, and I can tell you where Sheriff Stilinski is. But, there's a pack of Alphas in this hospital who want me dead. So, I'll help you- but only when I'm out of here and safe. Only then."

"Hey, that wasn't the deal!" Nat contends with a glare.

Derek doesn't let the woman explain herself, taking her by the arm once again and squeezing it furiously.

"Derek, wait!" Scott commands when he sees the man move to grasp her throat once again.

"She was trying to get out!" Derek defends.

Mrs Blake shakes her head, looking offended, "I was trying to keep myself from getting killed! You can't blame me for that."

"So you're a psycho and a coward. Good to know." Nat quips, moving to stand beside Scott and Stiles, who group around an unconscious Cora.

"If you want to show you're one of the good guys, then heal her." Stiles counters, gesturing down to the injured girl.

"Not until I'm safe." She rebukes, making the other's stare at her with hatred.

"I'd like to volunteer a different method of persuasion...," Peter begins, holding up a sharp medical instrument in front of his face, "Let's torture her."

"Now, we're talking." Nat grins, nodding in agreement with Peter's idea.

The man gestures to her in example as Derek shrugs, unconcerned by the suggestion, "Works for me."

Mrs Blake opens her mouth to interject, but before she can, the P.A. system fizzles on, Melissa's voice appearing through the cracked speakers, "Um, can I have your attention? Mr. Deucalion...Excuse me, just Deucalion...requests you bring the woman calling herself Jennifer Blake to the ER reception. Do this, and everyone else can leave. You have ten minutes."

Nat gapes up at the roof as though she can see Melissa and Deucalion through it. Shit- this is all so fucked!

They need to hand Mrs Blake- sorry, Jennifer- over to Deucalion to save Melissa, but they still need her to find Noah and save Cora!

"He's not gonna hurt her." Jennifer reassures them, almost nervously, conscious of their thought process and desperate not to be turned over to the alphas.

"Shut up!" Nat and Derek order simultaneously, both frustrated with the turn of events.

"He won't!" She reiterates, "Scott, you know why. Tell them it's true."

Derek furrows his brows, turning to look at Scott skeptically- clearly still wary of him from when he had worked with Gerard, "What does she mean?"

"You're not the only one he wants in his pack," Jennifer answers, when Scott remains silent, staring down at the floor bellow his feet as though it will swallow him whole and save him from this conversation, "Deucalion doesn't just want an alpha Pack- he wants perfection. That means adding the rarest of alphas to his ranks."

"A True Alpha." Peter marvels, staring at Scott in disbelief.

"What's that?" Stiles asks, voicing the main question on Nat's mind, who stares between the two adults and Scott in confusion.

"The kind that doesn't have to steal his power from another. One that can rise by the force of his own will," Peter elaborates, appraising the boy in front of him with a hint of awe, "Our little Scott..."

Nat glares at him defiantly for the his use of the collective pronoun 'our', still not over when he had tried to take Scott from them during his reign as alpha.

Scott dismisses their words with a shake of his head, "It doesn't matter. We still need to get her out of here."

Nat stares at Scott conflictingly. Is he really suggestion leaving his mother to the wolves- literally?

"Scott, your mom-!" Stiles begins, obviously thinking the same, despite his want to find his father.

"My mom said there's one more ambulance coming in twenty minutes," Scott interrupts, sternly, "And I don't think we've been here that long, so, if we can get down to the garage, get to the last ambulance, we can get out of here."

"The twins aren't gonna let us just walk out." Derek reminds him, almost solemnly.

"I'll distract them." Scott says simply.

"You mean fight them." Derek corrects.

"Whatever I have to do."

Nat shakes her head, grabbing onto Scott's arm to gain his attention, "You cant go out there alone!"

Derek nods in agreement, stepping closer to him in a show of support, "I'll help you."

"Um, sorry, but I'm not going anywhere without you, Derek. Or you, Nat. We cant be a team, if one of us is dead, after all." Jennifer points out.

"What is your obsession with team-work? We have bigger problems than Kali, at the moment!" Nat scoffs at her.

"I'll do it," Peter volunteers, stepping between the glaring women carelessly as he focuses on his nephew and Scott, "But, I'd prefer to be out there with an advantage."

"An advantage? Like what? You mean, like, a weapon?" Stiles interrogates.

"Something better than a baseball bat." Peter deadpans, turning on his feet to shuffle through the compartments in the room in search of his 'advantage'.

Derek and Scott immediately follow his lead, with Nat and Stiles joining quickly after, unsure whether of not they should actually be giving Peter a weapon. But as long as he's in a helping mood, Nat guess he's their best shot. Which is horrifying to admit.

To her left, Stiles holds a pair of defibrillators up in consideration, "Hey, wait, what about these?"

Derek stares at them in his hand for a second, "Do you know how to use those?"

"Well, no..." Stiles trails with a frown.

Derek shakes his head, "Put 'em down."

"Probably for the best." Nat mutters when she sees his disappointed expression. Stiles sends her a glare at her words, but she simply shrugs, not particularly in the mood to get an electric shock by her best friend.

"Epinephrine?" Scott questions, holding up a syringe for Derek's inspection.

"That's only gonna make him stronger." Derek protests, not even bothering to look up at it as he continues to move things among a shelf.

Nat pauses, Peter doing the same next to her. They share a look- one that immediately makes Nat want to claw her eyes out afterwards (there's no way she's becoming friendly with him after what he did to Scott and Lydia). Peter turns to Derek inquisitively, "How strong?"

Derek tilts his head inquiringly, but doesn't answer, and instead reaches for the syringe, taking it from Scott's hands and plunging it into the older man's chest.

Nat looks between the syringe in his flesh and Derek, "Is it really a good idea to give him more power?"

Peter ignores her doubt, walking jerkily towards the exit that leads to the hallway. Scott immediately follows, and the two disappear behind the doors without another word. Growls meet their ears, and Nat has to physically turn herself away from the door to make sure she doesn't run out after Scott.

Natalia turns her attention down towards Cora, who lies, sweat coating her forehead and a grimace of pain on her lips, "We need to get her to that ambulance, now, while they're still distracted with Scott and Peter."

Derek nods firmly, moving closer to the bed as Natalia retreats towards Cora's head. The man picks up his sister, pulling her over his shoulder in a fireman carry, Nat gently holding her head as he does so to make sure she doesn't injure her neck. Once she's all set, she pats Derek on the bat, using her hold on him to urge him towards the exit. Stiles and Jennifer fall into line beside her, the five of them quickly making their way through the empty hallway and down into the garage.

Stiles runs ahead of them, pushing open the doors, a noise of triumph falling from his lips as he points in front of him to a stationary ambulance, "It's still here!"

Stiles jumps into the back of the ambulance, helping pull Cora into the vehicle as Derek settles her down onto a stretcher with Nat's help. Stiles pushes his fingers beneath Cora's chin, nudging it upwards in an attempt to keep her air way clear.

"Derek? Over here..." Jennifer trails, her voice soft to Nat's ears.

The teen girl pays her no attention, uninterested in whatever she has found. Derek however follows the sound of her voice, disappearing from Nat's view to have a look.

"Julia...." Kali sings, making Nat freeze from where she's busy adjusting Cora's limb body on the stretcher, trying to make her as comfortable as possible, "It is you."

Nat forces herself to move away from Cora and Stiles, shutting the ambulance doors behind her and locking them both into the van. Stiles shakes his head, his eyes wet as he stares at her from behind the glass doors. Nat presses her hand momentarily to it, a silent promise that she'll return to him.

"You can't beat her on your own." Jennifer informs. Her words bring Nat back to the present as she rips her hand away from the glass. She can't let Jennifer die- they need her. They- she- needs to know where Noah is.

"That's why we're gonna run." Derek simply replies, pushing Jennifer ahead of him as they both round the ambulance back towards her.

The werewolf grabs onto her arm as he passes, pulling her after them and back into the building.

They swiftly re-enter the hospital, the sound of Kali's feet (and the scrapping of her nails) sounding out behind them.

"Wait! The elevator!" Jennifer gasps, gesturing back towards it.

Derek turns to go after her when he sees the woman already running for it, but Nat tugs down on the arm he holds her with, gesturing with her chin towards a stray stretcher at the side of the hallway.

Nat grabs onto it with her hands, Derek doing the same next to her, his hand dropping from her arm to do so, as they push the bed towards the rapidly approaching alpha. The bed crashes into Kali and Nat internally celebrates at how it slows her down slightly. Derek doesn't let her linger too long however as he shoves her forward roughly, herding her towards the elevator where Jennifer impatiently waits for them, her hand slamming down on the buttons.

She crashes into the elevator, narrowly missing the other body already in it, and Derek charges in beside her. The doors slam closed mere milliseconds after him, stopping right in front of Kali's enraged face.

Nat collapses back into the side of the elevator as she pants loudly, a feeling of relief invading her chest. She forgot how fucking scary werewolves are!

Just as Nat begins to regain her composure, her heart rate slowly returning to normal, the lights flicker around them, before plunging them into darkness. The girl jumps in surprise, her body unconsciously moving towards Jennifer, who stands beside her, pressed between her and Derek.

"Great as if being stuck in a small metal container with you guys wasn't enough." Nat breathes, her eyes falling closed in pure emotional agony.

"If you're thinking the service hatch, they bolt from the outside, so you'd have to break it. All you'd end up doing is creating a lot of noise, telling them exactly where we are." Jennifer declares, making Nat open her eyes to watch Derek mess around with the control-pad at the side of the elevator.

"Kali already knows." Derek monotonously answers, his gaze flickering around the room in search of something to help them escape it.

"Not necessarily- she saw that we got in, but she might not know that we didn't get out."

Nat snorts, "It wont take her long to realise we're stuck in here, not with that freaky smell-thing you wolves can do."

"Yeah, well, if I get through, then we can go to another floor..." Derek murmurs, his hands moving to grip the metal doors as he strains to pull them open.

"Or you'd end up fighting them alone in an elevator shaft! They'll rip my head off before you'd even have the chance to land a punch." Jennifer argues, stopping Derek from opening the doors with a firm look.

Nat desperately wants to shout 'hopefully!', but she reluctantly keeps her mouth shut. They need her. Jennifer is the only one who can save Cora and Noah, and Nat's not gonna give that up- even for a petty feud like theirs.

"We need someone to get the backup generator running." Nat mumbles, eyeing the darkness around them with a frown.

Derek pulls out his phone with a nod of agreement, the light from his screen illuminating the small container around them. Only then does Nat notice how close her and Jennifer are and she hastily shuffles away, glaring at her as she does so. Jennifer doesn't even spare her a glance at her theatrics.

A pinging noise distracts her from her one-sided glaring contest as Derek reads aloud to them, "Don't move. On our way."

"Who said that?"

"Scott."

Nat sighs, leaning back against the elevator once more as she remembers the last time they'd gotten stuck and how Scott had taken almost two hours to show up and save them. She doesn't think she can do that again. And she doesn't even have Stiles here to entertain her this time- one psycho Jennifer and an emotionally-constipated Derek, "We're all gonna die in here."

Neither deem her with a response, but Derek does lean forward, attempting to wrench open the elevator doors once again- it seems he knows it too.

If they're in here any longer, one out of the three of them are bound to snap and take it out on the others. Nat just hopes it's sooner rather than later- two hours with only their company sounds like torture!

"Anything?" Jennifer questions, gaining nothing but a cold-shoulder from Derek and scowl from Nat in response, "Derek, I know what you're thinking. That I'm using you. That everything that has happened between us is a lie. Or, that I'm evil...a bitch-"

"Well, you said it." Nat scoffs lowly, her arms folded over her chest as she watches the scene play out in front of her. Derek's back remains turned to Jennifer, but Nat can see the pinched expression he tries to hide from her all the same.

"But,"Jennifer continues smoothly, as though she hadn't even spoken in the first place, "I hope you're not thinking the most superficial thought- 'Is that her real face? The slashed, mutilated face revealed by the mistletoe...Is that what she really looks like?'"

Nat suddenly feels a wave of awkwardness wash over her at the vulnerable emotions on the faces in front of her as a tense silence envelops the atmosphere around them, "Hey, could you guys like do this somewhere else- where I'm not, preferably?"

"Julia Baccari. That was my name." She declares, paying no mind to her distress.

"Or, just continue," Nat nods, shifting on her feet, "that's cool too."

"I don't care." Derek finally speaks up, his voice dark. Nat almost wants to cheer for him for speaking up, but she manages to curb her excitement, knowing it would only end in her being glared at by both occupants.

"I guess I should have changed it to something with different first letters. I think I read somewhere that people always pick aliases that are subconsciously derivative of their original name. It's a way of not completely letting go of your identity, since your name is so tied to your sense of self," Jennifer turns to look at Nat, a soft smile twitching at the corner of her lips, "I guess you'd know that, better than anyone else, huh? Using your initials to signify your prior identity?" Nat remains silent at her probing, but she can't help the feeling of understanding that arises in her chest- she does understand, after all. She lived a thousand lives with her father, all but the one she truly wanted to live...her own. Jennifer turns back to Derek, unbothered by Nat's unusual quietness, "Do you know what else is? Your face. The one that's supposed to be staring back at you in the mirror- not some hacked-up atrocity you can't even recognise-"

"I still don't care." Derek interjects steadily, his gaze still set ahead of them, at the reflective metal wall where Nat knows he's watching them both closely.

"But, I bet you're curious. I bet you wonder exactly what happened." Jennifer baits, moving closer so that her body brushes up against the back of his shoulder.

Derek sighs, not outwardly reacting to her touch otherwise, "You were an Emissary. They tried killing you along with the rest of the pack. Mystery solved."

"I was Kali's Emissary..." she confesses, and at the name of the female alpha, Nat tilts her head in interest (is that why Jennifer wants to kill Kali?), "And I was the one she couldn't kill."

"So the mutt does have a heart?" Nat muses, sardonically, bitterness dripping from her tongue.

"For years, the Nemeton's power was virtually gone, like the dying ember of a burned-out fire. But, a few months earlier, something happened that caused that ember to glow a little brighter. Something that gave it a spark of power again- the sacrifice of a virgin," Jennifer's voice, which had been hard with conviction, now softens, her eyes gazing at the side of Derek's face sincerely, "You didn't know what you were doing back then, but killing Paige in the root cellar- sacrificing her there- gave power to the Nemeton. You gave it power again. You gave me power. Just enough to hold onto life a little longer. Long enough to be found."

Derek tenses up at the mention of 'Paige', and if Peter and Cora hadn't told her about the girl before, Nat's sure she would be gaping in surprise right now.

The man's hands curl into fists at his side, and his face twitches into momentary anger, but Nat knows they can't afford him to be the one to freak out and kill Jennifer for her careless tongue, so she rolls her eyes, forcing her voice into something light as she muses sarcastically, "I thought we weren't here for traumatic backstories?"

At this, Jennifer does send her a look- a pointed one with harsh eyes- but her voice still remains gentle towards Derek, "You know mistletoe is important to Druids...But, do you know the myth of why people kill under mistletoe?"

"No."

"It's a Norse myth. Baldr, the son of Odin, was the most beloved of the other gods- so much so that they wanted to protect him from all of the dangers in the world," Jennifer begins, her teacher voice shinning through as she overloads them with even more facts. Nat almost groans in boredom as she starts yet another story- can Scott hurry up with whatever he's going to do already!?, "His mother, Frigg, took an oath from fire and water, metal, stone, and every living thing, that they would never hurt Baldr. At a gathering, they tested him- stones, arrows, and flame were all hurled at him. Nothing worked. But, there was one god who wasn't so enamored of Baldr- the god of mischief, Loki. Loki discovered that Frigg had forgotten to ask mistletoe, a tiny, seemingly harmless plant, and completely overlooked. Loki fashioned a dart out of mistletoe, and it killed Baldr. Frigg was heartbroken. She decreed that mistletoe would never again be used as a weapon and that she would place a kiss on anyone who passed under it. So, now we hang mistletoe underneath our door during the holidays...so that we will never overlook it again," Jennifer's eyes go distant for a second, her eyes sympathetic to the mother's desperation to protect her child. She angles her body back towards Derek pointedly, her tone hardening as a scowl regains control of her face, "We were the overlooked- the Emissaries," at this statement, Nat sighs, it's like a never ending trauma-party in here!, "It was a mistake Deucalion and the Alphas should never have made, because I made an oath of my own. From virgins and warriors, from healers, philosophers, and guardians, to loan me their power so that I could teach these monsters that their monstrous actions would never be overlooked."

Nat looks over at her is disbelief. She really thinks she's doing something good?

"You killed innocent people." Derek spits, unfazed by her story. 

"So have you. I know the real color of your eyes, Derek, and I know what it means." Jennifer fires back.

Derek falls silent, and Nat bristles, taking the offence for him.

"What you did and he did are two completely different things," Nat defends, for no real reason other than the fact that she hates Jennifer just a little bit more than she does Derek at the moment, "His was an accident- a tragic one, but an accident all the same. You, you psychotic bitch, go around making your problem everyone else's! I mean, could you not at least find bad people to kill? Why are you killing good people- people with families, kids, friends? And you can preach your innocent all you want, but in the end, you're no better than the alpha pack."

Jennifer turns to face her, her normally calm and controlled expression replaced by an almost feral one, "I am nothing like the alpha pack. This needs to be done, and I am simply the only one left standing to do it. Do you think I like killing all these people?"

"It wouldn't surprise me." Nat scoffs, standing up straighter and meeting her anger head-on.

"You have no right to judge me-"

"No. I definitely do," Nat spits, crossing her arms over chest in defiance, "I can understand your need for revenge, more than most. But killing innocent people isn't the way- ever."

Jennifer takes a deep breath, attempting to manipulate her features into something akin to understanding , "I will tell you where the Sheriff is."

"Will you?" Nat fires back, "Because it just seems like we're all playing a pointless game, going round in circles. If you really want us to believe you, to help you take down the alphas, you have to tell me where he is right now?"

"No. I told you, as soon as I get out of here, we'll go after Kali, together, and then-."

"I don't give a shit about Kali anymore!" Nat yells, shocking herself by just how true her statement really is, "I just want to know where Noah is-
I just want to bring him home."

Jennifer stares at her in silence, and for a mere second Nat feels hope unknowingly grow in her chest, "Not until I'm out of the hospital safely."

Nat groans, her hope immediately extinguishing under her words. She turns away from her, facing the reflective metal behind her, because she's sure if she stares at her for any longer, she'll kill her.

"Listen, i'm not asking you to save just my life- I'm asking you to save everyone they'll ever hurt again." Jennifer declares.

"You can't beat them." Derek grunts.

"Are you sure about that? Boyd asked you right before he died- 'What happens to a Werewolf during a lunar eclipse?' You didn't get a chance to tell him, but you know, don't you? What happens, Derek? During the total lunar eclipse?"

"...We lose all our power."

Before either woman can express their shock at his words, the elevator jolts back into action, the lights still flickering rapidly around them.

Nat moves away from the edge of the elevator and back to Derek's side, Jennifer standing behind them, just in case an alpha is waiting for them behind the closed doors.

"Derek, please look at me." Jennifer directs softly. Nat and Derek look at her in the metal reflection, but it's not Jennifer who stares back at them, it's the Darach.

Nat gasps, starting to turn on her heels to face the woman. Derek does the same next to her, but before they can do anything, the lights flicker and darkness encases the room. Nat yelps helplessly as she hears Derek let out a grunt of pain beside her.

As soon as the lights turn back on, Derek is falling, his eyes closed. Nat reaches out, her hands grasping his shoulders and softening his fall to the ground. The weight of the man almost takes her down with him, but she luckily manages to remain steady on her knees.

Nat gazes up at the Darach, her eyes wide, "What are you doing!?"

"He was in my way," Jennifer defends with a dismissive shrug, her scarred face and beady black eyes piercing Nat's very soul, "Did you really think I was just going to let you take me out of here and kill me, when I've done what you've asked? Get up," Jennifer beckons her to stand and Nat only hesitates for a second before complying, her eyes gazing down at Derek for a second, "You know I really was going to let you help me kill Kali. I pitied you. Losing your girlfriend like that...but, well, there was always another plan for you anyway. You were never going to leave with me tonight."

"Where is Noah?" Nat questions, ignoring the insults and the confusingly vague riddles she throws at her.

She can care less what she thinks, or what 'plans' she's concocting.

Jennifer grins, a sound of disapproving falling from her lips, "Not so fast, Natalia. I've got a question for you first: haven't you been wondering about the black-hood who's been following you and your friends around?"

Nat's face contorts into a snarl, "This isn't an episode of Riverdale. Where's Noah?"

"You and Stilinski play chess, right? Well, then, I'll put your answer in a form you'll understand: to protect the king, you must first understand all the components on the board, you must know all their positions- and you have done well so far, I must admit. But you are forgetting about him, and that may well be your downfall," She say, before her eyes drift over Nat's head and towards the small screen above the elevator doors which indicate the rapidly decreasing floor numbers, "As we're running out of time, I'll make this easy for you. He's waiting for you in the place where this all started. Only there will you find the answer you seek."

"Where this all started?" Nat echoes in confusion, "What does that mean?"

"He said you'd understand."

"I'm not playing any more of your stupid games," Nat growls, frustration gnawing at her chest, "I don't care about this guy, I don't care what he's got against us. I just want Noah back."

"Ah, that's where you're wrong. He doesn't want the rest of the pack, he only wants you. And he's very determined. I mean, I wasn't even going to go after your little Sheriff in the first place, but he convinced me to in the end. He knows where Stilinski is and he's willing to give up that information, if you meet him on his grounds."

"And you just expect me to believe you'd be willing to let him give up one of your sacrifices?" Nat probes, her eyebrows pulling together in confusion. What is her game here? How does she benefit from all of this?

"Have you seen how big Beacon Hills is?" The Darach returns in amusement, "Losing Stilinski will easily be redeemable for me."

"And why should I trust you- or him?"

Jennifer smiles widely, "You can't. But, if you want any chance of seeing Stilinski alive, you have no choice."

"Who is this guy?" Nat questions, but a feeling in her stomach tells her she already knows the answer.

Jennifer shrugs, but the knowing expression on her face gives her lie away- she knows and she's enjoying not telling her, "I'm simply a messenger; we made a deal and this is me keeping my end of it. Find him and he will tell you where Noah is, but you're on a time-limit. And if you're not quick enough...," the elevator door dings open and Jennifer frowns in mock-disappointment at the sight, "Well, I don't think I need to tell you what will happen...This is the end of our little partnership, and for what it's worth, it's been fun. I'll give Kali your regards, when I kill her!"

And then the lights flicker, and she's gone.

Nat steps back in surprise, her eyes wide.

She gazes down at Derek momentarily as Jennifer's words replay in her head.

He. She called him 'he'.

And 'he' wants to meet her where this all started- where what all started? The preserve? Scott getting bit?

But no one but them were there that night, no one else could've known that's where Scott was bit...

But, what else could she possible mean?

He. He. He...

Nat takes a deep breath as she forces herself to face the small, ravelled up feeling of realisation in her stomach. The one that's been there ever since she first saw this hooded-person in the woods.

She knows who it really is.

Atticus.

It has to be. The timing is just too brilliant for it not to be; everyone around her is scattered, running from one place to the next like headless chickens.

She bets he's enjoying this, watching them struggle and panic.

How much of what's gone wrong is by his hand?

Did he help with what happened with the Kanima- with Jackson? With Erica, Boyd and Stiles in the basement of the Argent house?

He was communicating with Gerard for weeks before that though. Has he been here that long?

Does his reappearance mean Gerard is back too? Have they come back together to finish them all off?

She thought if he ever even stepped a foot back in Beacon Hills again, then they'd all know about it...

But, as much as it pains her to admit, it could really be him. He could be here.

In fact, she can feel it. Like a dark shadow over the town, his presence pollinating and suffocating the landscape.

But, if he's here, what could he be referring to?

Where this all started? What-?

And then it hits her, and she knows.

Their home. The one she's been avoiding like the plague ever since she's returned here.

That has to be it.

She continues to stare down at Derek, but she sees Noah in her head. She can't stay, she needs to go, she needs to find him. So with a silent apology on her tongue, she does just that.

Nat turns on her heels, darting down the hallway and towards the hospital exit- towards where her father is sat in wait for her- towards Noah.

Nat speeds up into a run, the lights flickering erratically all around her as she makes her way through the abandoned hospital. Her feet slide slightly as she turns a corner, her body crashing into another. She internally panics, her hand reaching down for her knife, which she pulls from her jeans- she hasn't got time to fight, she needs to get to Atticus (something she never thought she'd say).

The person she had collided with squeaks loudly, their hands holding onto Nat's shoulders in a tight grip for stability.

It's only when her knife is hovering behind her, ready to be presented to her suspected enemy, does she realise who she's hit: Melissa.

Nat almost sobs in relief at the sight of her. Melissa must feel the same way as she pulls the teen in front of her into a tight hug, "Nat! You're okay!"

"Yeah- yeah. I'm fine. Are you okay? Where's Deucalion? Scott?" Nat interrogates as she slides her knife back into place, away from the woman's eyes.

Melissa pulls away, relief shinning on her face, "I'm okay, Deucalion let me go. Scott's fine too, he just left to go find you and Derek, he said you were stuck."

"Yeah. We were. He's probably with him now. But, listen, Melissa, I need to go, I think I have a way to find Noah."

"How?"

"Jennifer told me that the answers I need to his whereabouts are stashed in a house downtown." Nat answers simply, choosing to leave the parts out about the answer being in the form of Atticus and her childhood home.

Melissa gasps, a look of joy overtaking her, "That's great, Natalia! We should find Scott, he'll go with you-."

"No!" Nat interjects, harshly, "No. I'll go. We don't know how long Noah has, and Scott's still gotta deal with the alphas. He has to stay."

"Then, i'll go with you-!"

"No. You can't," Nat shakes her head, stepping away from Melissa. The woman frowns at her actions, "I have to do this alone."

The 'I don't want to even think about you being in a room with Atticus' remains left unsaid, but Nat hears it in her head all the same.

Melissa must see something in her eyes because she nods in defeat, reaching around her to pull something out from beneath her scrubs, "Then you'll be needing this."

She brings her hand back out towards Nat, a gun dangling from her fingers. Her gun, Nat realises.

Nat reaches forwards to take it from her, but before she can pull it fully from her hold, Melissa tightens her grip on the weapon, staring down at her sternly, "Be careful."

"I will." She says softly, feeling a twinge of guilt settle in her chest at the pure lie. There's no way she can be okay after this. Her worst nightmare is coming to life: Noah's life is in the hands of her father. That is a dangerous situation and Nat's never felt more afraid than she is right now.

Nat sends Melissa a comforting look- that's probably more for her own benefit than the woman's- before moving around her and taking off, her chest just a little bit lighter now that she knows Melissa is okay, Cora is with Stiles, and Scott has Derek. They'll all be fine.

The confidence at the knowledge of their well-being spurs a fire in her heart. If she has to face her father to get Noah back, then so be it.

She's not a child anymore, and this time she'll be ready.

She tightens her grip on her gun and exits the hospital, before bee-lining it straight to the nearest car. She forces the door open after slamming her elbow through the glass. She ignores the pain that pulses in her arm and quickly sparks the car to life, just like she had done with her motorbike all those months ago.

Rain continues to slam down on the concrete around her, the wind roaring ferociously, as Nat starts the vehicle up, pulling it out of the carpark and taking off down the road, her hands tight against the steering wheel and her gun laid out in the seat beside her.

She tries not to think about what's she doing and instead allows the adrenaline to take over her actions, making her movements look jerky, robotic.

And while her outside demeanour is the definition of calm, excluding the slight tremor in her hands, her interior starts a riot. Her heart beats wildly in her chest and her bones are rigid in fear, she hasn't felt this familiar dread in months- and she's gotten so used to the warmth of those around her, that she forgot just how heavy and burdensome it felt.

The stark reminder, however, makes her shoot straight back into her old 'flight of fight' mode, and she hates it. She feels the familiar tug in her muscles to run and she has to practically force herself to stay in place. She can't run- not this time. Not with Noah's life on the line.

Natalia doesn't stop driving until she sees the faint outline of her childhood home. She feels emotions stir in her stomach, nausea climbing up her throat, but she shoves them both down as soon as they arise.

It's just a house, she reminds herself sternly, the real threat is inside it, waiting for her to walk through the door.

The house blends in with the others on the street- beige, tidy and botanised with extravagant flowers- and it's got a silent beauty that is rarely expressed by modern buildings. The quaint house looks everything and nothing like she remembers it to be, and she's not entirely sure if that's a good or bad thing yet. The lawn is perfectly trimmed and there's no weed or stray blade of grass in sight. It looks like a picture-perfect home; until the history of it is revealed, that is.

Not even its present beauty can hide the hideousness of its past.

Nat notices a car in the driveway, a large family-sized grey minivan and she swallows thickly.

The last she'd heard about this place, was that a family of four had moved in here, but that was months after the Hayes's had moved out in the first place, and Nat hasn't kept up to date since all those years ago, far too afraid to imagine another family playing house where she once did. Everything she has learned about this forlorn structure since, has been involuntary. She remembers how a month ago, Tara had told her that it was to be turned into a museum for the red-horns, but then someone else in department had told her it got added to the list of most-haunted houses in America and was to be made into some sort of tourist attraction- and neither have happened, so it's safe to say that all of her information about this place is dated.

But they- or someone- must still inhabit the place, if a van is here, because her father would never be careless enough to leave any sign of his presence anywhere, so it must not be his. The thought that they might still be here however causes Nat to inhale sharply, her chest tightening at the thought of a defenceless family being trapped in their own home with a senseless monster. God, she hopes she's wrong, she hopes beyond belief that they aren't here...

Nat forces her muscles to move as she climbs out of the car, her hand gripping her gun tightly. She flicks the safety off and converges on the house, her hair becoming matted to her face as the rain coats her body.

Memories of laughter and childhood innocence, grazed knees and shoddy-made skateboard ramps fill her head, times where she had been happy and free. She wonders what that child version of herself would think about her life now. She'd probably be disappointed with how it turned out; her, Scott and Stiles always did have big plans of stardom in those days...

She covers the nostalgic feelings with her fury, smothering any type of comfort with images of blood, screams and loss. She doesn't want to remever the good times, she just wants this all to be over with.

This place is the beholder of her grief, a symbol of all that once was and what could've been. She can feel the ghost of her mother around every inch of the property and that, coupled with the thought of Noah, is enough to get her to approach the front door.

She shifts her gun into her right hand, her other hand swiftly making its way towards the door handle. She hesitates for a second, wondering if she should knock or just walk in, before choosing the latter, not wanting to be caught off guard by whatever is inside, and pushes open the door.

The door creeks slowly open as Nat shoves the barrel of the gun in front of her cautiously. She freezes for a second at the entrance, staring in at the dark house in apprehension.

She can hear nothing but the loud beating of her heart, something that causes her skin to itch nervously, and so she creeps forwards, allowing her body to be swallowed by the darkness of the house.

As Nat enters, she leaves the door open ajar behind her, so that some of the moon-light can reach the insides of the house and illuminate her way- not that she really needs it, she could probably navigate this place blind, it's layout burned in her mind like a tattoo, but the open door is also a good backup-plan, just in case she needs a quick exit strategy.

Natalia only gets a few feet before she spots light pooling through a door opposite her. The golden hue stretches out towards her from under the wooden door, a clear invitation to her. She silently accepts it and stalks closer, her feet barely making noise as she sneaks around the house. She's sure there's no point in her trying to be quiet, he must know that she's here, but old habits die hard, she supposes.

A sharp sound rings out behind her and she turns, gun raised towards the open door. When nothing appears and her heavy breathing and the sound of rain is the only noises she can hear, she turns once again, moving towards the light quicker this time.

She doesn't like any of this. They should've done Peter's idea and just beat the information out of Jennifer right there and then.

She reaches towards the handle of the room, but before she can open it, the front door slams closed and the light behind the door switches off, plunging her back into pure darkness. She gasps, a spark of terror shooting up her spine at her sudden blindness.

A hand snakes around her mouth and she kicks out, her arms swinging erratically as she tries to fight off whoever holds her. More hands grip onto her, pulling her in different directions, sharp nails digging into flesh. Nat raises her gun in response and shoves it threateningly around her, squinting her eyes as though that would make it easier for her to see who exactly she is fighting. It doesn't.

Since she can't see anything, her gun is practically useless, but she holds it up all the same, more for comfort than anything.

Her knife is taken from her pocket and she yells out in protests, reaching blindly around her into the darkness after it. She meets nothing but air and instead kicks out harder as she is lifted from the ground by multiple people. She kicks and writhes in their hold, but she is weak to their touch.

A sound of a door opening echoes through the hallway and the next thing she knows, she is being thrown to the floor. Nat manages to keep to her feet as she stumbles forwards. She raises her gun once again, tilting her head to the side as she tries to listen out for any sounds of movement. But it's quite, like they were never there to begin with.

Then the lights flicker on and she yells out in shock.

She is surrounded on all sides.

They all wear a black hoodie and a red bandana around their mouths, their eyes barely visible under the shadows their hood creates.

Nat flinches back from the harshness of the light, staring back menacingly at the group in front of her through narrowed eyes. She holds her gun steady, darting it from one person to the next as she spins helplessly. Pain radiates from her body and while she doesn't risk looking away from these people, she can see scratches on her skin from the corner of her eyes.

She's sure they're waiting for her to say something, but she has nothing to say, her surprise capturing her tongue and making it feel heavy in her mouth.

She's saved from having to comment on her situation however, as they lunge forwards, almost simultaneously.

Hands grasp at her body once again, ripping at her hair and digging nails into her skin. She yells out and swings her gun into the closest person she can find. They go down like a rock, but their space is quickly filled by two more people. Nat continues her fight, despite knowing the futility of it, as every time she takes one down, more simply grow in their place; like a fucked-up hydra.

She is overwhelmed in minutes, her body going to the floor as they climb on top of her, fists punching and feet kicking at her sides. She screams and her gun is knocked from her hand, jostled away from her grip by the commotion.

Just as quickly as they had started, they all stop, backing away from her as a figure moves between them. The others part like the sea for the tall person, and Nat just knows that this is him. That Jennifer had been right, that this man- who holds the location of Noah- is her father.

She stares, her eyes reluctantly heating up as the person stops just mere feet away from her. Nat raises her body to lean on her hands, her arms shaking with the effort of keeping herself up. She doesn't dare let them buckle though- if she's gotta face him, she doesn't want to do it lying down.

From where she is, blood dripping from her nose, she can see his hauntingly familiar blue eyes. They pierce her own in the way that always used to make her skin crawl and her breath catch in her throat.

The person in front of her lowers their hood and rips the bandanna from their mouth. Terror rushes through her once again. It's one thing to think it's him, but it's a completely different thing to see him.

"Welcome home, Natty."

The man spreads his hands wide, his lips contorted into a sickly grin. He looks the same as he did then and she hates it.

Nat exhales, choking back a sob at the sight of him. She wants to cry and scream, beg whatever god is out there to take him away from her, but she knows it won't help- it never did then, so why should it now?

She turns her gaze to where her gun lays innocently beside her, no one having bothered to take it away from her reach.

They know there's too many of them for her take on.

But they underestimate her anger.

The con lunges forward, wrapping her hand around it and turning it towards the man in front of her. Her finger hovers above the trigger, and every nerve in her body is telling her to pull it, to kill him, to free every one of this monstrous being. But she knows she can't, and he knows it too, if the way his lips stretch in amusement is anything to go by.

The group around her don't even react to her threat, but their eyes do hone in on her. They make her feel small and so she shuffles to raise to her knees, her narrowed eyes set on Atticus.

The man raises an eyebrow, his smug features making her finger twitch over the trigger in warning, "Are you really going to shoot me? Your own father? The man who taught you how to wield it?"

"Where's Noah?" Nat asks, having to practically force the words to fall from her lips as a lump of emotions clog-up her throat. She raises to her full height, getting tired of the way they all hover over her like giants from her position on the floor.

All humour leaves his face and disgust takes over instead, "Noah? You haven't seen me in months and you don't ask about me? I'm insulted, Natty."

He turns to the group around him and he signals with a wave of his hand towards her. Two of them surge out to grab her and Nat turns the gun onto them instead.

Atticus makes a disapproving sound, "Put that down before you hurt yourself, kid."

Nat raises it higher, aiming for the forehead of one of the people he had sent forward, they both freeze, looking back to Atticus for further instruction.

The man simply sighs, an unconcerned expression on his face as he stares down at his daughter, "Put the gun down or Noah dies. Your choice. But make it quick, we haven't got all night."

Nat stubbornly clenches her jaw, glaring up at Atticus. Part of her wants to call his bluff and shoot his followers right in front of him, just to get a reaction out of him, but the more logical part of her screams at her not to do anything rash. She needs to find Noah, and Jennifer told her Atticus knows where he is- why him? Well, she's not sure she wants to know the answer to that...

She drops the gun to the floor beside her, watching as one of the people in black kick it away from her reach, while the other two, who were already approaching her, grab her by her arms and shove her forwards. Nat glares at the unnecessary manhandling, but remains silent as they drag her to stand before Atticus.

The man smiles at her and Nat feels her skin prickle in alarm, every childish fear she'd thought was long gone and buried resurfacing as she stares into his cold eyes.

Atticus reaches out and brushes a strand of hair away from her face and Nat has to fight to keep her expression blank. But, when he goes to tuck the strand behind her ear, she can't hide the flinch that slips from her defences and she internally curses herself for doing so.

Atticus catches it, just like he always did, "You don't have to be afraid of me, sweetheart," Nat almost laughs at his words, but he continues before she can say anything, "I'm not here to hurt you," Nat feels the sticky blood on her face and begs to disagree, "I'm here to bring you home."

Nat furrows her brows, she attempts to step back unconsciously but the dual grip on her arms tighten and she remains stuck in her place, "I am home."

Atticus is silent for a second before he laughs. The people around her join in and Nat stares blankly in response. Did she miss the joke?

"Fuck, they've really done a number on you, haven't they?" Atticus chuckles, "Don't worry, Natty, it'll all be over soon. Once we get back to New York, we can continue like none of this ever happened."

Nat feels panic raise in her chest. He wants to take her back to New York? A sense of Deja vu overtakes her.

"I don't want to." She whispers. The words fall from her lips before she can stop them and she immediately regrets them when Atticus' face turns stone-cold.

She knows that look, and the pain that usually follows after it, and so braces in preparation, her shoulders tensing and her spine straightening.

"You don't want to?" He repeats venomously, "I am your father. You will do what I say. And it's in your best interest to leave the past behind us, don't you think? I know what you did to us, daughter."

Nat feels fury take over her, pushing past her fear and overwhelming her senses. She has everything here, she's not leaving her family- not again. Not for him, not for anyone.

And why does he want her anyway, if he knows that she's the one who turned them all in? What use could a traitor be to him?

She closes her eyes for a second remembering the warmth Melissa's hug had given her, before opening them with a newly set fire in them.

"I am not your daughter and I'm not leaving Beacon Hills. You don't control me anymore...Now, tell me where he is."

Atticus strikes her, his fist connecting with her nose and causing pain to explode between her eyes. Her vision blurs and cheers roar all around them. Atticus doesn't stop, "You are not my daughter? Are you not my blood?" He shouts as he stands above her, fist already stained red with Nat's blood.

The people holding her up tighten their hold on her arms as he hits her, keeping her upright as her body lurches with each punch.

When he finally stops, Nat twists her head back towards him and glares. Her face is hot with blood and she knows it must not be a pretty sight.

She spits at him, a mixture of blood and saliva hitting him, "Fuck you."

Atticus lips twitch into a scowl, "Out." He barks at the people around them. They comply immediately and Nat laughs hysterically at the sight.

"You've trained your new dogs well." She compliments sarcastically as she lies on the ground in pain, the people that were holding her up leaving them along with the others.

Atticus backs away and turns from his daughter. He straightens his clothes with precision before clearing his throat loudly, "You should know better than to test my patience, Natalia."

Nat pushes herself back to her knees, despite the want in her chest to just lie on the floor and cry.

"You're working with Jennifer." Nat declares. It's not a question, but she doesn't elaborate any further on it, letting the statement hang in the air for a second.

Atticus turns back to her, his face clear of hatred and back to his usual smug grin, "The Darach, you mean? I wouldn't say we're working together, our end-goals just simply align for the time being," Nat jolts at his words, shock taking over her face. Atticus chuckles at her distress, "Oh? Did you think I didn't know what you and your little friends have been getting up to? How is Scott and Stiles, by the way? I haven't seen them since they were kids. I might have to pay them a visit soon, huh?"

"Stay away from them." Nat growls.

"My, my," Atticus tuts, with a crooked smile, clearly happy to have got a reaction out of her, "How sensitive you are. It was merely a thought!"

"Did your friend Argent tell you about the supernatural?" Nat taunts, wanting to gain a similar reaction from him.

Instead of his shock however, his face dissolves into rage, "Argent?" He spits the name like it's venom, his face twisting in disgust, "I would never work with one of their kind."

"I saw the messages in the paper," Nat fires back, "A.H., for you and A., for 'Argent'."

Atticus tilts his head before another smile splits out on his face. Nat shivers at how quickly he changes emotions, she'd forgotten how creepy it was, "A. Isn't for 'Argent', you silly girl, it's for 'Alpha'."

Nat's eyes grow wide.

He's working with the Alpha pack?

What-?

How-?

"But, Jennifer-?" Nat begins, remembering the pure hatred she holds for the pack.

"Doesn't know." He interjects sharply.

Nat's head pulses in confusion and frustration. She slams her eyes shut as black spots swim in her vision, consuming her eye-sight for a few moments.

She's not sure if it's from the blood loss or the new information she's been given, but her heart feels like it's about to explode from her chest with how hard it's pounding.

"What...?"' Nat's mouth hangs open as she tries to form the rest of her question- but there's so many, that her words get stuck on her tongue, lingering behind her lips and leaving a sour taste behind.

Why do you hate the Argents? How did you know about the supernatural? How long have you known? How long have you been here? How are you here? How did you meet Jennifer or the alphas? Where's Noah?

That last question echos loudly in her head and she shoves all the others away at the sound of it. She can't let herself get distracted- she doesn't care how he knows what he does or how he got out, she just needs to find Noah.

"Where's Noah? I've done what you've asked, I'm here, so tell me where he is."

"The self-righteous Sheriff...," Atticus breathes as he saunters around the room carelessly, acting as though his daughter isn't bleeding profusely in the middle of it, "You should've seen his face when he saw me. It was hilarious! He was so shocked- I wish I could've taken a picture of it!"

"Where is he?" Nat presses, trying to pull him back on topic.

"Somewhere you won't find alone...But, luckily, for you, you have me- us- now."

Nat's heart sinks at his insinuation, but she keeps her voice steady as she commands, "Just tell me where he is."

"I'll do you one better, I'll show you."

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(15363 words)
Written - 09/08/2024
Edited - Not yet edited so
sorry for any mistakes!

author's notes,
Omg this chapter was so long😭
Hope everyone enjoyed it tho!!

I have a new teen wolf book out! It's called Good Reputation and it's an actor version of this book (if that makes any sense???) It's basically a social media and IRL book! So, if that interests you, please check it out!!

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